Please forgive our use of a pun in this article's title. We are all very excited here at the Military Aviation Museum, as we are now the proud home to another important piece of WWII aviation history - an original, beautifully restored Vultee BT-13A Valiant! This example is now on public display, and we expect to be add it to the schedule for upcoming events – but more on that later! With this announcement, we wanted to answer some of the questions which are likely popping into some of your minds right now... so here goes!
So what exactly is a BT-13?
Believe it or not, this is a more common question than you might think – even amongst those who are familiar with World War II aircraft. Perhaps this is because the type did not reach the iconic, post-war status of its more ubiquitous brethren like the North American AT-6 Texan Advanced Trainer or even the Stearman and Fairchild PTs which typically filled the US Army Air Forces' Primary Training roles. this does not mean the BT-13 was any less important. The aircraft with the Basic Trainer (BT) designation filled a vital gap in the pilot instruction pipeline for the United States during World War II.
Primary, Basic and Advanced training were phases designed to allow cadets to ramp up their skillset in a compressed period of time. The exact length of the training varied, according to the US Army Air Forces, on the basis of National Danger. Typically, cadet pilots spent ten weeks in each phase before proceeding to the next (if they made the cut). However, immediately following Pearl Harbor, several classes were thrust through their curricula after just 7 weeks in each phase. Even so, while the length of the overall period of instruction might change, every effort was made to avoid compromising the actual flight training hours each trainee pilot took part in – with “the military element” sometimes being subordinate to the requirements involved with learning to fly.
Student pilots earned their wings upon graduation from Advanced Training, but this did not mean they were ready for battle. To achieve that qualification, these freshly-minted pilots required several additional months of specialized instruction in the kind of flying they would expect to perform in theater. Typically, it took roughly a year for the average American pilot to progress from their first flight to being ready for combat during WWII.
Civilian Flight Training Schools played a significant role in providing Primary Training alongside specialized military facilities as the need for pilots grew. The primary instruction phase was principally organized around students learning to handle their aircraft – the fundamentals of flying – as well as accommodating a pilot’s first solo flight. For much of WWII, this first ten weeks of instruction included 60 hours of actual flying training, with the requirement that each trainee perform at least 175 landings. Cadets also had to learn particular maneuvers, like lazy 8’s, chandelles, and landing approaches.
After graduating into Basic Training, a Aviation Cadets (as the Army Air Forces referred to their trainee pilots) now learned to fly the 'Army way', at an Army-run school (with a few small exceptions). The aircraft they learned on in Basic Training were heavier, with more powerful engines and more complex systems than those they operated in Primary Training. Basic Training students also learned more detailed aspects of airmanship. The Basic Training phase required 70 – 75 flight hours to complete typically. Pilots entering Basic Training initially transitioned to the BT-13, their new aircraft type, and then began a wide range of instruction involving aspects such as night flying, instrument flying, formation flying and conducting cross-country flights (which required navigation skills). The instructors in this phase focused upon precision regarding aircraft control, smooth flying, and the repetition of essential maneuvers (to the point of proficiency) covered in the previous phase.
During the war, internal tension persisted within Flying Training Command regarding how this phase of flight instruction should be balanced. Some officers believed it should continue to focus upon the fundamental aspects of controlling a more powerful aircraft, while others felt that this would come at the expense of building competencies in formation and instrument flying. Part of the way through the war, however, our enemies furnished the answer through our combat theatre experiences.
Real, lived combat mission experiences, informed the US Army Air Forces that instrument flying in poor weather and being prepared to fly at night, were of vital importance to the pilots being sent overseas. It was this method of flying which became the BT-13’s largest contribution to the war effort. During the war, Instrument training was dabbled with during different parts of the Flight Instruction process, including in Primary Training as well, but it would be in Basic Training that the Army Air Forces would find an airplane equal to the task of training pilots to perform this task with excellence.
Early on, Army Air Forces instrument instruction focused upon three cockpit instruments: the rate of turn indicator, the bank indicator, and the airspeed indicator. It would be the US Navy which introduced them to the concept of instrument flying using the full-panel - making use of the directional gyroscope and artificial horizon as well. This change, instituted in the Summer of 1943, had an immediate effect on the quality of pilot graduates, and further reinforced the core emphasis of the Basic Training phase on instrument instruction.
Selecting who went where in their Advanced Training was also an important aspect of the Basic Training program. Contrary to popular belief, the student was able to express a preference, but other factors - such as the relative need for fighter and multi-engine pilots, the student’s skill and his physical suitability to fit comfortably into the different aircraft, often carried more weight. If you were selected for single-engine (fighter) advanced training, you would go on to fly the AT-6 before earning your wings, and if you were selected for multi-engine (bomber and transport) advanced training, you might fly an AT-17 or similar, twin-engined platform.
But we digress - for a pilot to gain all of the vital skills they had to learn in Basic Training, they needed to fly an aircraft which was essentially a Goldilocks platform. Vastly more capable than the average Stearman Primary Trainer, but not so complex that students could not progress in them safely. Enter the BT-13. With its ability to fly at 180mph, a range of 725miles, a two-seat tandem cockpit with two full sets of controls, fixed landing gear, flaps, a two-position propeller, an air-to-ground radio, an in-aircraft intercom, and sufficient instruments to fly blind, it was perfectly suited to the Basic Training program.
Imagine yourself as a pilot just moving up from a Stearman into this aircraft, looking into this cockpit for the first time. Many of the instruments that have been fitted closely resemble the originals (still others are the originals) that would have been used for the vital instrument flying role which the BT-13 served. (image via Jet Air Inc.)
The aft cockpit, with the intercom handset visible, as well as the Vultee emblazoned rudder pedals. The relatively simple construction of the airframe is also visible here. This allowed the BT-13 to be produced in larger numbers than all other basic trainer types combined. The type’s success in the training pipeline also meant that by mid-1943 there was no longer an acute shortage of trained pilots in the United States. (image via Jet Air Inc.)
Some confusion around the serial number of this particular aircraft is being addressed by our research team, but what we do know is that it was carefully restored from an example that had been languishing in a field. Several photos of the aircraft in the condition it was found in came with its purchase, and we will share those once we are able to get them scanned! (image via Jet Air Inc.)
So why aren’t there more BT-13s around?
The number of flying BT-13s has declined from almost 30 a decade or so ago, to an estimated 16 or so now. The reason that any military aircraft type survived the mass scrapping after WWII was almost exclusively due to its ability to remain useful in its original role, or to fill a niche in the civilian market. BT-13s were less useful in the jet age, whereas the AT-6 survived in military roles for nearly half a century after WWII. AT-6s were also more popular with civilians - they could fly further and faster. As a result BT-13s were often shunned on aircraft lots around the country in favor of their more robust cousins. Similarly, BT-13s did not have the same utility on the civilian market as a type like the Stearman, so it did not enjoy the post-war economic opportunities of that far less complex type. The same, however, cannot be said for the BT-13's 450hp Pratt & Whitney R-985-AN-1 nine-cylinder radial, single-row, air-cooled engine. These became highly desirable – particularly to crop dusters, who wanted to put the more powerful powerplant on their newly war-surplussed Stearmans. At one point in time, you could buy a BT-13 for only $450 - that's $1 per horsepower - to scavenge its desirable engine. Obviously, it goes without saying that this is no longer the case!
The BT-13 now entering our collection has been carefully restored, and includes many of the hard-to-locate pieces of original equipment, including the in-cockpit intercom system, and the instrument flying hood. It is marked with the tell-tale red nose and tail markings of an instrument trainer to boot! The diagonal markings on its wings were originally intended to aid formation flying.
What is perhaps even more exciting, is that - just as it performed during World War II - this airplane will once again be helping new, younger pilots, build their tailwheel time and flying experience as they work their way towards flying the other, more complex aircraft in the Museum's collection. Indeed, this task has been something of a tradition for this particular airframe, as its previous owners used it to provide others with the chance to fly it as well.
