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daveymac82c
I have transcribed the USAAF individual aircraft record cards for PT-18s 40-1965 and 40-1966.
This shows where 40-1966 served and when it was redesignated as a PT-17.
40-1965 makes an interesting comparison as it remained as a PT-18.
Model: PT-18
Serial No. 40-1965
A.C Contract No. W 535 AC-13244
Cost: $7,160.
Date Received: 10-19-40.
Assigned to Sikeston, MO.
reassigned to Hemet, CA., 1-24-42.
reassigned to Ontario, CA., 2-11-42.
reassigned to Oxnard, CA., 7-13-42.
reassigned to Thunderbird 2, (date undecipherable)
reassigned to Chickasha, OK (date undecipherable)
reassigned to Goodfellow Field, TX (date undecipherable)
reassigned Selman Field, TX 9-23 (probably 1945)
to C.A.P North Carolina (probably also Sept 1945)
to Class 01Z, July 1947
Struck off 13 Oct 1947.(possibly to Civil Air Patrol).
Model: PT-18
Serial No. 40-1966
A.C Contract No. W 535 AC-13244
Cost: $7,160.
Date Received: 10-18-40.
Assigned to Sikeston, MO.
reassigned to Hemet, CA., 1-24-42.
reassigned to Ontario, CA., 2-11-42.
reassigned to Oxnard, CA., 7-13-42.
Redesignated to PT-17 per DA27
LG Ontario California dated 7-28-43.
reassigned Perrin Field 9-20- (44?)
reassigned to Chickasha, OK 10-18- (44?)
reassigned San Angelo, TX 5-31- (45?)
transferred to Reconstuction Finance Corporation 6-29-45
sold from the Defense Plant Corporation field at Baton Rouge, LA.
My speciality are the Fairchild PTs but I have are several comments that might be relevant to the thread.
1) The metal skinning of fabric covered aircraft converted for crop spraying/dusting was common as others have suggested. This modification was also undertaken with some Fairchild PT derived agplanes.
2) RCAF Stearman PT-27 did not have canopies. Only the final example, FK108 was fully fitted out to the standard the RCAF requested and records suggest it was not delivered to the customer. The remainder were delivered to almost PT-17 standard, i.e., open cockpit, no blind flying instruments and no cockpit heater. Most PT-27s were actually used at the RAF Elementary Flying Training Schools in Canada and returned to the USA by early 1943.
3) I recall reading somewhere that a few of the Stearman trainers delivered to the U.S. Navy had canopies, but I have never seen that detailed or quantified.
4) The list of PT-18 accidents offered is unlikely to be complete. This is not said with any disrespect to the poster or to the AAIR website from where the list was copied. Almost one third of the one hundred and fifty PT-18s built served at No.1 British Flying Training School at Terrell, Texas, at some stage in their career. For reasons which are not entirely clear to me accidents which occurred to aircraft or personnel at any of the seven B.F.T.S. in the USA were either not reported on the standard USAAF Form 14, or these documents were not preserved. Hence the sources available to AAIR include very few PT, BT or AT, BFTS accidents. I note there is just one Terrell accident in the PT-18 list
Hope this helps, Tony Broadhurst
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