1944 North American NA-88 Texan (AT-6D) (SNJ-5)

Today's Tribute to WWII Aircraft highlights the North American NA-88 Texan (AT-6D) (SNJ-5) the plane featured in Judy Luck's Wings of Angels Photo Shoot. This beautiful plane currently resides at Yanks Air Museum in Chino, California.

"In 1937 North American won the Air Corp design competition to produce the new combat trainer that developed into the AT-6.

The most universally used trainer in the allied air forces. Known as the AT-6 by the USAAF, the T-6 after 1948, was produced well into the 1950's.

Cadet training consisted of 26 weeks of pre-flight, 11 weeks primary training in the N3N and 22 weeks advanced training in the SNJ.

Carrier landings, gunnery, bombing and rocket attack were completed and finally the reserve officer was moved to a combat training team.

The attack on Pearl Harbor found the Navy with only 4,000 combat pilots.  By the end of the war there were 60,747 Navy aviators.

Over 2,000 AT-6's remained in service after WWII also serving abroad as the famous T-6F Harvard.
This powerful trainer was very successful in prepping pilots for fighter aircraft." (Yanks Air Museum)

The North American Aviation T-6 Texan was a single-engined advanced trainer aircraft used to train pilots of the United States Army Air Forces, United States Navy, Royal Air Forceand other air forcesof the British Commonwealth during World War II and into the 1950s, and of Israel. 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. It remains a popular warbird aircraft used for airshow demonstrations and static displays. It has also been used many times to simulate the Japanese Mitsubishi Zero in movies depicting WWII in the Pacific.

Specifications:

Manufacturer: North American
First Produced: 1938
Horsepower: 550
Service Ceiling: 24,200 feet
Top Speed: 205 mph
Range: 750 miles
Armament: (1) .30 cal forward firing machine gun, (1) .30 cal machine gun in rear cockpit

Photo Credits: Michael Malak, Malak Photography.com, Wings of Angels, Yanks Air Museum