New Canary flown in France

During the first weekend of March, a recently imported warbird took to the air at the airfield of Cerny-La Ferté Alais. It was the first time that this Naval Aircraft Factory N3N-3 trainer left French soil since it was imported from the USA.

The N3N-3 is usually referred to as Canary which could have something to do with its usual (yellow) colours during US Navy usage. The 1941 built aircraft (with code “707”, msn 3060) used to fly in the USA as N44877, which registration was cancelled on 22 October 2020. It was imported by La Ferté based Aero Vintage and assembled there.

The Canary is destined for a new owner (whose identity is unknown until now) living in Reims, France. As far as we know the new N3N is now the second of its kind in France. The first example, F-AZNF, has been at La Ferté since a number of years.

Although the N3N and the contemporary Boeing-Stearman PT-17 series were both flown as primary trainers, the Canary is surely less known. The Stearman was surely more popular and wider spread: almost 11,000 of the Boeing-Stearman PT-17 series were built, against 1000 Canaries.

Photo by Philippe Delarbre