RNZAF Harvard

 

RNZAF Harvard aircraft at Onerahi Aerodrome, Near Whangarei, New Zealand, 1961 The AT-6 Texan single-engine trainer aircraft entered production in 1937 after the United States Army Air Corps made an order for 180 aircraft and the British Royal Air Force for 400. The USAAC designated their aircraft as BC-1, while the RAF called theirs the Harvard I. The US Navy received 16 modified aircraft, which they designated SNJ-1, and then 61 more as SNJ-2. As the war began in Europe, a total of 1,173 were contracted to be given to the RAF and the Royal Canadian Air Force via Lend Lease; these were the AT-6 Harvard II variants with squared-off wingtips and straight-edged rudders. As the United States geared for war, the US Army Air Force received 1,549 AT-6A aircraft and the Navy 270 SNJ-3 aircraft, which were trainers equipped with the more powerful Pratt & Whitney R-1340-49 Wasp radial engines. To boost production, North American Aviation gave Canadian firm Noorduyn Aviation the license to build R-1340-AN-1 powered version of the AT-6A variant, which were sold back to the USAAF as the AT-16 aircraft and the RAF and RCAF as the Harvard IIB aircraft. Several more variants entered production as the war progressed. The AT-6 Texan design was so successful that new variants continued to be built after the war. In 1948, they were redesignated T-6. In the 1950s, Canada Car and Foundry continued to build aircraft based on the T-6 Texan design, and supplied the finished products to the RCAF, RAF, and the German Bundeswehr. During the design's production life, 15,495 were built. They served during the Korean and Vietnam Wars in the rear as trainers and in the front as forward air control aircraft. Many countries used them as counter-insurgency aircraft well into the 1970s.