Canadian Warplanes (5d) Ontario, Ottawa, Canada Aviation & Space Museum: Northrop Delta

Canada Aviation and Space Museum,

Musée de l'Aviation et de l'Espace du Canada,

Northrop Delta

The Canada Aviation and Space Museum is located at 11 Aviation Parkway, Ottawa, Ontario.

The aim of this website is to locate, identify and document every historical Warplane preserved in Canada.  Many contributors have assisted in the hunt for these aircraft to provide and update the data on this website.  Photos are by the author unless otherwise credited.  Any errors found here are by the author, and any additions, correctons or amendments to this list of Warplanes in Canada would be most welcome and may be e-mailed to the author at hskaarup@rogers.com.

(RCAF Photo)

Northrop Delta Mk. II (Serial No. 675), ca 1939.

The Northrop Delta was an American single-engined passenger transport aircraft of the 1930s. Closely related to Northrop's Gamma mail plane, 13 were produced by the Northrop Corporation, followed by 19 aircraft built under license by Canadian Vickers Limited.

In 1935, Canada selected the Delta for use as a photographic survey aircraft for use by the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), to be built by Canadian Vickers under license. One aircraft, the last Delta built by Northrop, was supplied as a part assembled pattern to Canadian Vickers, first flying on 16 August 1936 and being delivered to the RCAF on 1 September that year. It was followed by a further 19 aircraft built wholly by Canadian Vickers, production continuing until October 1940. The Northrop Delta was the first completely all-metal, stressed-skin aircraft built in Canada, however it was closely preceded by the Fairchild Super 71, whose stressed skin construction was limited to the fuselage and not the flying surfaces.

The Deltas, which were capable of being operated from wheeled, ski or float undercarriages, proved capable survey aircraft, well suited to operations in the north of Canada, but in August 1939, when the outbreak of the Second World War loomed, Canada found itself short of coastal patrol aircraft, and the Deltas were diverted to this role, being fitted with floats and carrying out long anti-submarine missions. The Deltas were less successful as patrol floatplanes, as they were damaged by ocean swell and by salt water corrosion, and they were forced to revert to landplane use after two months. The Delta was withdrawn from operations in late 1941, then being used as instructional airframes in training schools. (Wikipedia)

(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3581148)

Northrop Delta Mk. II, RCAF (Serial No. 673) on skis, Apr 1939.

Two of the Royal Canadian Air Force’s pre-war members lost their lives in crash on the early afternoon of 14 September 1939, in a low valley near Beaverbrook Lake, New Brunswick.  The crash site was not discovered until 10 July 1958.  The pilot of Northrop Delta (Serial No. 673) was Warrant Officer James Edgerton “Ted” Doan of Ottawa and aircraft mechanic Corporal David Alexander Rennie of Ottawa.  In their attempt to get to Sydney, Nova Scotia for anti-submarine duties, they became the first of many Canadian casualties of the Second World War to die on Canadian soil.  The fuselage of this aircraft is now with the Canada Air and Space Museum in Ottawa.

(Author Photo)

Northrop Delta Mk. II, fuselage (Serial No. 673), CV183.  These are the remains of the first RCAF loss of the Second World War.  The Delta went down in Northern New Brunswick on 14 Sep 1939 with the loss of the aircrew.

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