Just another PT-19

[Chris Brame]

Found this one and digitized it for WIXer jdvoss's Fuselage Codes site; might as well share the full-size image. PT-19A 42-2530 from Victory Field, a primary training base near Vernon, TX; code T65:



No info in the Baugher site on it. Thanks for looking!

Last edited by Chris Brame on Thu Dec 30, 2021 10:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Cvairwerks]

Chris: Victory was 6 miles from Vernon, Texas, almost 150 miles from Denton....

Of course, here in Texas, anything under 3 hours drive time is "close"....

[M-62A]

From the Individual Aircraft Record Card:
PT-19A. 42-2530
A.C. Order No. W 535-ac-19039. Date Received: 3.21.42. Manufacturer: Fairchild.
To Vernon 3.23.42.
Monthly entries March to November 1942 all read: "RITCHEY"
Reassigned from 2567 Base Air Squadron at Vernon to Brooks Army Air Field August 1944.
To Reconstruction Finance Corp 22 Oct 1944.

As 42-2530 was manufactured prior to May 30, 1942 it would have been delivered in the blue and yellow trainer scheme, that and the battered cowling suggests the photo was taken somewhat later.
The civil contractor at Vernon, Texas was the Ritchey Flying Service, until taken over by the Hunter Flying Service in December 1942.
Titled the 313th Army Air Force Flying Training Detachment and later the 2567th Base Air Squadron.

Registered NC53272. First Certificate of Registration date unknown. Last CoR 11 August 1947 and cancelled 30 September 1948. Owner in Wimslow AZ.

Tony Broadhurst

[Forgotten Field]

What is the significance of the May 30 1942 date and the blue/yellow scheme?

[marine air]

That engine cowling is beat to heck. Never seen one that damaged on an airworthy Air Corps aircraft. I guess they were in short supply.

[BigGrey]

That engine cowling is beat to heck. Never seen one that damaged on an airworthy Air Corps aircraft. I guess they were in short supply.

Maybe it ended up on it's nose a time or two.

[M-62A]

What is the significance of the May 30 1942 date and the blue/yellow scheme?

In H.L. Puckett's "Sherman Fairchild's PT-18, Cradle of Heroes" he writes :"No trainer airplane was manufactured after May 30, 1942, painted in the blue and yellow colors. After this date all aircraft came off the production line painted silver with black glare panels on the front cowlings and around the cockpit."

Dana Bell in his "US Air Force Colors 1926-1942" discussing the colors applied to the PT-17 states, "The Tech Orders did not catch up with the practice until that July [i](1942) when all trainers became involved."[/i]

Either way this March 1942 delivery was likely to have been decorated in the previous scheme.

Tony Broadhurst

[junkman9096]

That engine cowling is beat to heck. Never seen one that damaged on an airworthy Air Corps aircraft. I guess they were in short supply.

I wonder if it may just be a mottled paint job or a flaw in the photo? I agree that I've also never seen a panel on a flyable plane to be as beaten as that.

[michaelj2k]

The cowling does look roughed up. Remember, these trainers were ridden hard and put away wet, not like the finely restored examples we have today.

[Kyleb]

The cowling does look roughed up. Remember, these trainers were ridden hard and put away wet, not like the finely restored examples we have today.

Yeah, and if it nosed over or suffered a ground loop (or if the wind caught the cowl and bent it when it was undergoing maintenance), I'm sure they just leaned on it until it latched and sent the airplane back out.

[JohnB]

"To RFC, 22 Oct. 1944" .

There was a war on...and we were already getting rid of surplus types.

Various trainers and observation/liaison types were up for sale, but with fuel (and flight?) restrictions, I'm not sure if they could fly.

I recently read that the Army even began selling used Jeeps before VJ day.

Another sign peace was near, various general aviation prototypes were under construction or were in test, before the end of the war.

[Chris Brame]

Chris: Victory was 6 miles from Vernon, Texas, almost 150 miles from Denton....

Of course, here in Texas, anything under 3 hours drive time is "close"....

Argh. Meant to say Vernon... honest! Noted and fixed.
The back side of the picture has a stamp from a photo shop in Enid, OK, but no date.

[M-62A]

"To RFC, 22 Oct. 1944" .
There was a war on...and we were already getting rid of surplus types.

In the case of the USAAF primary trainers it was judged they were no longer needed.
Whilst throughout 1940 to 1943 the Allied pilot training programs were being regularly expanded it was recognized by late 1943 that there were enough pilots for the foreseeable future. Losses had been lower than estimated. Other aircrew trades continued to be trained but there was now a reserve of pilots.
It decided to slow the pilot output and to achieve this by first reducing the number of primary training schools and cutting back on the production of primary trainers. The effects of this can be seen in the closure of some RCAF and RAF Elementary Flying Training Schools in Canada which began in early 1944.

Thorough 1944 the USAAF went through a similar pattern of closing it's civil contract primary flight schools. Whereas sixty such establishments were in operation during late 1943 by the beginning of 1945 I can only count approximately sixteen remained and of those, four were British Flying Training Schools for RAF students and a fifth school for French primary students.
With the exception of one B.F.T.S. where PT-19As had been used since June 1941, the remaining primary schools were equipped with Stearman and most converted to the PT-13D during 1945.

Hence during the summer, autumn and winter of 1944 large numbers of Fairchilds, Stearman and Ryan PTs were retired and transferred to the R.F.C. for surplus storage and sale.

Tony broadhurst

[Chris Brame]

So I imagine those early-retired planes sat for about two years before being actually sold?

[M-62A]

Chris,
"So I imagine those early-retired planes sat for about two years before being actually sold?"

Not necessarily. The various Reconstruction Finance Corporation sales centers were offering surplus PT-19s and other PTs. in 1945. The prices were fixed in within a certain range but reduced as time went on. If this example was passed to the R.F.C. in the same condition as that shown in the photo then it may not have been sold until the prices went down. Presumably most buyers would make their offer on an aircraft with the least hours and in the best condition he could afford.

Re: the details I gave.. "Registered NC53272. First Certificate of Registration date unknown. Last CoR 11 August 1947 and cancelled 30 September 1948. Owner in Wimslow AZ."

These CoR dates came from the online FAA Registry and as always only relate to the final or current registered owner. The first CoR may have been issued during 1945 or 1946 but you might need the FAA file to find those details. The file might also include such gems as the bill of sale between the R.F.C and first owner. From the CoR dates I have seen it would appear many had been cancelled after just a very few years as per N53272.

I have a few pages of the first post war issue of U.S. Civil Aircraft Register from 1946 and these include numerous PT-19 registrations.

During 1946 and 1947 the Lend-Lease trainers such as the PT-26 were returned from Canada by which time the R.F.C. had become the War Asset Administration and offered them to the market in a similar way.

If you wish to get a better grasp of all this I would recommend Bill Larkin's "Surplus WWII U.S. Aircraft".

Best Wishes for 2022, Tony Broadhurst