Vultee BT-13 Valiant
The Vultee PT-13 Valiant was a monoplane Basic Trainer with seating
for an
instructor and trainee, under a greenhouse canopy, and had fixed
landing gear.
The base BT-13 and PT-13A variants were fitted with a 450 HP Pratt
& Whitney R-985 radial engine, while a variant known as the
BT-15
was fitted with a 450 HP Wright R-975 radial engine.
Per
reference
[8] a prototype BT-13
took its first flight in March 1939 and entered service with
the US armed forces in June 1940. Eventually 9,525 of this
type
aircraft were built and it served as the main Basic Trainer for the
USAAC during WWII. A number of these aircraft were
transferred to
the US Navy to also serve as a Basic Trainer and were identified as the
SNV in naval service. In addition to service with the US
Armed
Forces it alsoeventually served with the air forces of Argentina,
Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic,
Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, France, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras,
Indonesia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines,
the USSR, and Venezuela.
As
shown in the images below distinguishing features of this
aircraft including;
- radial
engine
- inline
cockpits for the instructor and trainee ounder a greenhouse canopy
- low
mounted wing
- fixed
landing gear
[Image
Sources: US Government/Public Domain via Ref [8] - as
annotated by this site]
For
the filming of the movie "Tora, Tora, Tora" in
1970 several BT-13 aircraft were converted to look like Japanese Aichi
Val D3A dive bombers, some of which still appear in air shows.
Notes:
This website
has been developed with a number of low cost or free programs including
Hot Metal Pro, KompoZer, MicroSoft Designer and Da Button Factory.com
Rev 3-3-25
