USAF T-6 Texan Trainer (2024)

History of the T-6 Texas Trainer

The North American Aviation T-6 Texan was a single-engine advanced trainer aircraft used to train pilots of the United States Army Air Forces, United States Navy, Royal Air Force and other air forces of the British Commonwealth during World War II and the 1950s.

Designed by North American Aviation, the T-6 is known by a variety of designations depending on the model and operating air force. The USAAC and USAAF designated it as the AT-6, the United States Navy the SNJ, and British Commonwealth air forces, the Harvard, the name it is best known by outside of the US. After 1962, US forces designated it the T-6.

The AT-6 family of Advanced Trainers first entered service in 1938, and variants continued in service for decades. About 1,800 of the AT-6A model were built. The naval version of the AT-6 is the SNJ; the approximate equivalent of the AT-6A is SNJ-3, and another 270 of these were built.

AT-6A airplanes were built at the original North American factory in Inglewood, California and at a new plant in Dallas, TX; the Dallas plant was the dominant source of the model. The AT-6A features a 600 HP Pratt & Whitney R-1340-49 radial engine, a variable-pitch propeller and retractable main landing gear. It also could be fitted with machine guns for use in gunnery training.

Later versions of the AT-6 (which was by then referred to simply as the T-6) continued in service after WWII. In addition to a training role, T-6's were used as forward air control aircraft during the Korean War. They were often referred to as "Mosquitos" during this action. Several countries also used armed T-6 airplanes as ground attack or counter-insurgency aircraft.

For more than six decades after its design in 1937, the North American AT-6 Texan were used throughout the world as advanced trainers, artillery spotters (in Korea and Vietnam among other theaters), and as counterinsurgency and fighter-bombers by numerous developing countries. The last known military use of the Texan was by the South Africa Air Force as a trainer, in 1995, which gives it a working history of 60 years, a figure virtually unrivaled in the history of military aviation.

Today there are hundreds of Texans flying in private hands, and their value continues to rise.

One reason there are so many T-6s still flying is because so many were built. From 1937 to the early 1950s North American and other manufacturers produced more than 16,000 Texans to satisfy the demand for advanced airplane trainers.

It remains a popular warbird aircraft used for airshow demonstrations and static displays, as seen in the photos below on this page.

T-6 Texan Specifications

Span: 42 ft.
Length: 29 ft. 6 in.
Height: 10 ft. 10 in.
Weight: 5,617 lbs. loaded
Armament: None (some AT-6s used for gunnery/bombing training)
Engine: Pratt & Whitney R-1340 of 600 hp.
Cost: $27,000 (in 1942)
Maximum speed: 210 mph.
Cruising speed: 145 mph.
Range: 770 miles
Service Ceiling: 23,200 ft.

T-6 Texan Photos

North American T-6 Texan 7725 (Staff photo)