North American T-6

North American T-6 Texan
North American AT-6C "Texan" 1943
Type:	Trainer aircraft
Design country:	United States
Manufacturer:	North American Aviation
First flight:	September 28, 1938 (NA-49)
Commissioning:	1939
Production time:	1939 to 1944
Number of pieces:	15,495

AT-16 Harvard II B in flight

Canadian Car & Foundry Harvard Mk. IV

North American AT-6D

Two T-6s during an air show in Würselen

The North American T-6 was a single-engine trainer aircraft made by the US manufacturer North American Aviation during the Second World War . The low-wing aircraft was used to train fighter pilots . The T-6 was also used by various states for counterinsurgency and as a light fighter-bomber . In the USAAF it flew until 1948 as AT-6 , in the US Navy under the name SNJ . The name Harvard was common in the Commonwealth of Nations.

With 15,495 machines of all variants, it is one of the most built aircraft types in the world. The T-6 is now a popular exhibition and aerobatic aircraft at air shows .

history

The T-6 was a further development of the NA-16 prototype, which flew on April 1, 1935. The successor to the NA-26 was delivered in March 1937 for participation in a tender of the United States Army Air Corps . The first BC-1 model went into production with 180 aircraft, and another 400 Harvard I were delivered to the Royal Air Force . The US Navy received 16 modified SNJ- 1 and 61 SNJ-2 aircraft.

After a further 93 BC-1A and three BC-2 aircraft, the AT-6 was created - for advanced trainers - which corresponded to the BC-1A with slight wing changes. The RAF / RCAF received 1,173 Harvard IIs , most of which flew in Canada as part of the Empire Air Training Scheme .

Play media file

Video of a T-6 in the colors of the German Air Force

Next they built the AT-6A , which was based on the NA-77 design. It had a Pratt & Whitney R-1340-49 radial engine. The USAAF received 1,549 machines and US Navy 270 (SNJ-3) . The AT-6B received a 0.30 inch machine gun for training purposes. An R-1340-AN-1 engine became the standard engine on all remaining T-6s.

Noorduyn Aviation in Canada built an R-1340-AN-1 powered version of the AT-6A of which 1,500 were delivered to the USAAF as the AT-16 and 2,485 as the Harvard IIB RAF / RCAF, some for the Fleet Air Arm .

The NA-88 design was the basis for 2,970 AT-6C Texans and 2,400 SNJ-4s . The RAF received 726 AT-6C as Harvard IIA . Modifications to the electrical system resulted in the AT-6D (3,713 machines) and the SNJ-5 (1,357 machines). The AT-6D was delivered as Harvard III to the RAF (351 machines) and to the Fleet Air Arm (564 machines).

The last version, the Harvard 4 , was produced by Canadian Car & Foundry in the 1950s. The supplies went to the RCAF and USAF. The army received 1957 135 machines from Canada for the symbolic price of a Mark. The Texan became the first training aircraft for the new West German Air Force.

25 of the AT-6F (based on the NA-121 design) were delivered to the USAAF and 931 (SNJ-6) to the US Navy.

The T-6 Texan formed the basis of the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation's CAC Wirraway aircraft, of which 755 machines were built between 1939 and 1946.

During the Korean War and shortly afterwards, some T-6s were used for air surveillance under the type T-6 "Mosquito".

France deployed 38 T-6s during the Algerian War . Portugal used more than 100 of these machines during the colonial war .

The T-6 was in service with the South African Air Force SAAF until 1994.

"Miss Goosebay" at Tannkosh  2008

An AT-6 training machine, open day at Uetersen airfield . Note the equipment with the still existing on- board machine guns .

D-FRCP at the Bonn / Hangelar airfield (2009)

Military users

•  Argentina
•  Belgium
•  Biafra
•  Bolivia
•  Brazil
•  Chile
•  Denmark
•  Germany

air force

•  Dominican Republic
•  El Salvador
•  France
•  Gabon
•  Greece
•  Haiti
•  Honduras
•  Hong Kong
•  India
•  Indonesia : former Dutch machines
•  Iran
•  Israel
•  Italy
•  Japan
•  Yugoslavia
•  Canada

Royal Canadian Air Force

Royal Canadian Navy

•  Katanga
•  Colombia
•  Cuba
•  Lebanon
•  Laos
•  Morocco
•  Mexico : 47 AT-6 + 73 T-6C
•  Mozambique
•  Nicaragua
•  New Zealand
•  Netherlands
•  Norway
•  Austria : 10 v 1960 to 1971
•  Pakistan
•  Paraguay
•  Philippines
•  Portugal
•  Taiwan
•  Republic of the Congo
•  South Vietnam
•  South Korea
•  Sweden
•  Switzerland
•  Spain
•  Soviet Union : 84 under the Lend Lease Act
•  South African Union
•  Southern Rhodesia
•  Syria
•  Thailand
•  Tunisia
•  Turkey : 196
•  Uruguay
•  United Kingdom

Royal Air Force

Royal Navy

•  United States

United States Army Air Corps / Army Air Forces

United States Air Force

United States Navy

United States Marine Corps

United States Coast Guard

•  Venezuela
•  Zaire

Todays use

Antique car

Numerous airworthy specimens, many of which have been painstakingly restored by enthusiasts , are part of the standard program of many air shows around the world. The New Zealand Warbirds "Roaring 40s" aerobatic team uses retired Harvards from the Royal New Zealand Air Force . They can also be seen frequently in Germany. a. the T-6 from Eichhorn Adventures. The Aachen-Merzbrück airfield is home to four T6s that have formed the so-called "Banana Republic Air Force".

Movie

Viewers can also recognize the T-6 in numerous war films produced after World War II, such as B. in Torah! Torah! Torah! , where they represented Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighters, Aichi D3A Val dive bombers and Nakajima B5N Kate torpedo bombers with various additions and conversions as well as a corresponding paint job . Also in the Hollywood film The Final Countdown (original title The Final Countdown ) from 1980, the Mitsubishi Zero fighters are represented by converted T-6s. In The Bridge of Arnhem T-6s with the rear half of the cockpit disguised as Allied fighter-bombers can be seen.

Reno Air Races

Only machines of the type North American AT-6 in their original condition are admitted to the National Championship Air Races in Reno (Nevada) . Neither the original 600 hp 9-cylinder radial engine of the Pratt & Whitney Wasp R-1340 type nor the airframe may be seriously modified. Only small cosmetic improvements such as covering gaps with tape are allowed.

Museum reception

• A North American NA LT-6G Texan of the Austrian Armed Forces is exhibited in the military aviation exhibition Zeltweg in hangar 8 of the Hinterstoisser air base, a branch of the Vienna Army History Museum .

Technical specifications

Parameter	AT-6D data
crew	Instructors and student pilots
length	8.84 m
span	12.81 m
Wing area	23.57 m²
height	3.57 m
Empty mass	1885 kg
Takeoff mass	2548 kg
Top speed	335 km / h at an altitude of 1500 m
Service ceiling	7400 m
Range	1775 km
Engine	1 × Pratt & Whitney R-1340 -AN-1 Wasp radial engine, 600 PS (441 kW)
Armament	Possibility for 1 x .30 in (7.62 mm) machine gun

See also

• Harvard II : The modern military turboprop trainer aircraft was named after the T-6 Harvard .
• List of aircraft types

literature

• Documents from the Federal Archives / Military Archives Freiburg
• Les Ailes Francaises 1939-1945, No. 3

Web links

Commons : North American T-6 Texan  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

• The Canadian Harvard Aircraft Association website for background information
• Various copies in the "Canada Aviation Museum" with techn. Data
• AT-6: Schoolmaster with an attitude , a pilot's report (English)
• s / n 76-3556: Website of a best-preserved AT-6A

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Globalsecurity.org history of the SAAF see: Aircraft of the Nineties
2. ↑ Doppeladler.com
3. ↑ Hans-Joachim Mau, Hans Heiri Stapfer: Under the Red Star - Lend Lease Aircraft for the Soviet Union 1941-1945. Transpress, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-344-70710-8 . Pp. 146-149
4. ^ Reno Air Racing Association ( Memento March 12, 2009 in the Internet Archive ): T-6 Class, accessed March 12, 2009
5. ↑ on doppeladler.com , accessed on September 10, 2013
6. ^ Riccardo Niccoli: Airplanes: The most important types of aircraft in the world . 1st edition. Kaiser, ISBN 3-7043-2188-5 , p. 166 .