Vultee Valiant N79VV
BT-13A-vu/SNV-1
SPECIFICATION
AND PRODUCTION INFORMATION
ENGINE: Pratt & Whitney R-985 Junior
Wasp radial, 450 h.p.
WING
SPAN: 42 feet, 2 inches
LENGTH: 28 feet, 8 inches
HEIGHT: 12 feet, 5 inches
MAX.
TAKEOFF WEIGHT: 4,725 pounds
MANUFACTURED
BY: Vultee Aircraft
TOTAL
BT-13/SNV-1s BUILT: 11,537
TOTAL
IN EXISTENCE TODAY: Approximately 150/Flying 50
FIRST
BT-13/SNV-1 BUILT: 1939
VALIANT
ECHOES “GRACE” BUILT: 1942 AAF Number: 42-89379
MAXIMUM
SPEED: 185 mph
RANGE: 880 miles
SERVICE
CEILING: 19,400 feet
The darkening year of 1939 saw the start of WWII and the birth of
the BT-13, Vultee Valiant. The AAF had
already selected the NA AT-6 as the Advanced Trainer and then approached the
Vultee Aircraft Company to modify their entry in the Advanced Trainer
competition, the V-54, to a fixed gear/450 hp Basic Trainer. This resulted in an initial order of 300 aircraft
and lead to a final production number near 12,000 by the end of the war. The Valiant became the main stay of both the
AAF and Naval pilot training programs and every cadet had to master it during
Basic Flight Training. The aircraft
acquired the nickname of “vibrator” early in its career and it stuck.
Interestingly, the Valiant was designed and built so well that
the Naval version, SNV-1, was just a stock AAF BT-13 with only the name
changed. Considering the different
landing techniques required to land on a carrier this speaks very highly of the
aircraft’s stoutness.
The aviation cadet training program established by the armed
forces in WWII consisted of four programs; ground, primary, basic and advanced
training. They were each about 10 weeks
long. During the Ground phase,
cadets learned military skills such as marching and aerial skills like
navigation and theory of flight.
Primary Training was just that, flown in primary trainers
like the PT-17 Stearman and PT-22 Ryan, cadets learned to take off, fly and
land. There were no radios and the
instructor spoke to the cadet over a one-way gosport
system. It consisted of a rubber tube
that went from the instructors funnel speaking port to the cadets
helmet. Of note, during flight training
it was felt that students should listen and not talk so there was no reason for
the cadet to have a return speaking ability.
Those cadets who passed this phase went on to Basic Training. Of the many cadets who did not make it, most went on to
other flight training such as Navigator and Bombardier.
BASIC TRAINING was the next step and the cadet’s first
taste of military flying. Instrument,
formation and night training were introduced.
Also more intense aerobatic training combined with the cadet’s introduction
to large engine power management and a controllable propeller. Basic also was the cadet’s first use of the
aircraft radio and intercom. The large
antenna seen on the BT-13 was the radio antenna for these large tube type
radios. For there large size, they only
had a few channels available and required changing crystals to change these
frequencies. The pressure was on the
cadet during Basic. They knew their
ultimate combat aircraft would be determined on how well they did in this phase
of training. Those cadets to make it to
graduation were now divided into two groups for Advanced Training – Fighter and
Multiengine.
Advanced Training was in the AT-6 for fighters and the AT-9/10
for multi engine training. After the
more specialized advanced training, graduating cadets were awarded their wings
and assigned to operational aircraft types.
The washout rate was high during the training process with around
50% not making it to earning their wings.
Naval training followed a very similar track. It also included carrier landing training
although that was only done during advanced training.
Those cadets in both services who demonstrated very high skill
levels were often assigned as new instructors to train the cadets behind
them. Though not as glamorous as flying
a combat aircraft, the risks were just as high and thousands of pilots were
killed during training accidents in the war years.
The end of the war in 1945 saw a massive draw down of military
forces and tens of thousands of aircraft were removed from service and
scraped. Of the thousands of Valiants
built, most were gone by the early 1950s and today only a handful remains on
the FAA registry. Of those even fewer
are flying. As with most WWII trainers,
the CAA (forerunner of the FAA) granted Standard airworthiness status to those
that were converted to civilian use.
N79VV was restored to like new condition by John Drews in 1998 after sitting in storage since 1945. It was acquired by Valiant Echoes in 2007 and
is the first BT-13 to perform an aerobatic airshow act.
Michael named his
BT-13 “GRACE”.
The sound and sight of the BT-13 is like no other aircraft and
Valiant Echoes is committed to keeping this very important part of our aviation
heritage alive for future generations.
Freedom is not free. We must
carry on the memories of those that went before to inspire those that will
follow.