North American T-6 Texan (incl. Harvard and SNJ) — History, Specs & Stories

T-6 Texan
Aircraft Museum · Trainer · T-6 Texan

North American T-6 Texan
The Pilot Maker

The advanced trainer that turned hundreds of thousands of cadets into combat pilots for the Allies, then fought its own wars from Korea to Algeria and served the South African Air Force until 1995.

1935First flight (NA-16)
15,000+Aircraft built
60+Air forces
1995Last military trainer service (SAAF)
Photo: Alan Wilson / CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
RoleAdvanced trainer, forward air control and light attackEra1930s to 1990sEnginePratt & Whitney R-1340 Wasp 9-cylinder radialOriginUSA · North American Aviation; licence-built in Canada and AustraliaStatusRetiredWant to fly a real military jet?

The Story

The T-6 Texan: how one trainer taught the Allies to fly

On 1 April 1935 North American Aviation flew a low-wing, fixed-gear two-seater called the NA-16. It was a modest machine, but the US Army Air Corps wanted a trainer that behaved like the fighters its cadets would soon fly, and North American kept refining it: retractable undercarriage, a bigger engine, a stressed-skin structure built to take punishment. The line ran through the BC-1 basic combat trainer of 1937 to the AT-6 of 1940. The Army called it the Texan, the US Navy the SNJ, and the British Commonwealth the Harvard. After 1948 the US Air Force settled on T-6, the name that stuck. By then the aircraft had already trained a large share of the pilots who fought the Second World War, on both sides of the Atlantic and across the Commonwealth.

Its job was the step between a gentle primary trainer and a 1,000-horsepower fighter. The Texan had a constant-speed propeller, flaps, retractable gear, a full instrument panel and enough torque on the Pratt & Whitney R-1340 Wasp to bite a careless pilot on take-off and landing. Instructors liked that: a cadet who could handle a T-6 cleanly could handle a P-51 Mustang or a Spitfire. Gunnery versions carried machine guns, Navy SNJs carried tail hooks for carrier practice, and the type became known simply as the Pilot Maker. Its long greenhouse canopy, tandem seats and blunt radial nose became, for a whole generation, the very picture of learning to fly military aircraft.

Production was enormous. North American, Noorduyn and Canadian Car & Foundry in Canada, and Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation in Australia (as the Wirraway) built well over 15,000 of the family, with totals commonly given between about 15,500 and 17,000 depending on which derivatives are counted. More than 5,000 went to British and Commonwealth air forces, many of them to the schools of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. After 1945 the T-6 trained the air forces of more than sixty nations, flew forward air control in Korea, fought insurgencies in Greece, Algeria and Africa, and remained in South African service until November 1995. Hundreds still fly today as warbirds, film aircraft and air racers.

If a cadet could land a Harvard cleanly in a crosswind, the fighter that came next held few surprises.The Pilot Maker — trainer to more than sixty air forces
01The T-6 Texan’s lineage: from the NA-16 to the T-6G

The family tree is tangled because the aircraft grew in steps. The NA-16 of 1935 had fixed gear and an open cockpit layout; the Air Corps bought a derivative as the BT-9 basic trainer. The NA-26, submitted to the Basic Combat Trainer competition in 1937, added retractable gear and became the BC-1, 177 of which were delivered from June 1937, powered by the 550 hp R-1340-47. In 1940 the Air Corps created the Advanced Trainer category and the definitive airframe became the AT-6.

Wartime production ran through the AT-6A, the armament-training AT-6B, the AT-6C (designed to save aluminium with wood and steel parts) and the AT-6D with a 24-volt electrical system, with Navy equivalents from SNJ-1 to SNJ-6. After the war the US Air Force remanufactured existing airframes as the T-6G, with a revised cockpit, a steerable tailwheel and more fuel. Tinker Air Force Base history records that around 1,800 aircraft were upgraded under this programme from 1949. Canadian Car & Foundry built new Harvard 4s, essentially T-6Gs, into the 1950s.

02The T-6 Texan abroad: Harvard, Wirraway and the Commonwealth schools

Britain ordered its first 200 Harvards in June 1938, according to the RAF Museum, and direct purchases reached about 1,100 before Lend-Lease took over. Once war began, much flying training moved away from Britain’s crowded skies to Canada, Southern Rhodesia, South Africa and the United States. In Canada, Noorduyn at Cartierville received its Harvard contract in January 1940 and delivered from January 1941; the RCAF flew the type from 1939 to 1965, until the Canadair Tutor replaced it.

Australia went further. Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation built 755 Wirraways, a Harvard derivative armed as a general-purpose combat aircraft, and in the desperate months of 1942 they were sent into action against Japanese forces. Sweden built and bought Harvards as the Sk 16; Japan’s navy flew the Kyushu K10W, loosely derived from the NA-16; and post-war, Harvards spread through NATO and beyond under the US Mutual Defense Assistance Program, giving the type a second career in the air forces of West Germany, Italy, Turkey, Greece and many others.

Design & Engineering

What makes the T-6 Texan special

01

A trainer that behaved like a fighter

The T-6 was deliberately not easy. With a 600 hp radial, a narrow-track tailwheel undercarriage, constant-speed propeller and retractable gear, it demanded the same habits a fighter would: careful rudder on take-off, a disciplined circuit and pre-landing checks for gear, flaps, mixture and propeller. A USAAF officer writing in 1944 called it a plane that could do anything a fighter could. That reputation is why air forces kept it for decades as the final step before operational types.

02

Built to be abused

The airframe was conventional all-metal stressed skin with fabric-covered control surfaces, simple to repair and tolerant of hard landings by tired cadets. The Pratt & Whitney R-1340 Wasp was already a proven engine from pre-war fighters and transports, which kept spares and training easy. The same toughness later made the T-6 useful in light attack, where operators valued its ability to absorb small-arms damage and fly home.

03

The Harvard’s voice

Anyone who has heard a Harvard at full power on take-off remembers it: a harsh, rasping howl quite unlike other radial-engined aircraft. The cause is the direct-drive two-blade propeller, whose tips approach the speed of sound at take-off power. It made the type notorious around training airfields and is still a signature sound at airshows, where the surviving aircraft remain among the most numerous flying warbirds.

03The T-6 Texan’s cockpit: tandem seats and a full instrument panel

Student and instructor sat in tandem under a long glazed canopy with sliding sections, the student usually in front. Both cockpits had full controls and instruments, so the T-6 could be used for instrument training under a hood as well as aerobatics, formation and navigation. Gunnery versions carried a fixed forward-firing .30-inch machine gun, with provision on some for a second in the wing and a flexible gun in the rear cockpit, giving a total provision of up to three guns.

The fuel system later became a known weak point. Wear in the fuel tank selector valve could let it drift into an intermediate position and starve the engine, and civil authorities have issued guidance on it; operators today commonly fit modified selectors.

Technical Data

North American T-6 Texan specifications

Specifications

Crew
2 (student and instructor, tandem)
Length
8.84 m (29 ft 0 in)
Wingspan
12.81 m (42 ft 0 in)
Height
3.56 m (11 ft 8 in)
Wing area
23.57 m² (253.7 sq ft)
Empty weight
1,886 kg (4,158 lb)
Max take-off weight
2,548 kg (5,617 lb) gross
Powerplant
1 × Pratt & Whitney R-1340-AN-1 Wasp radial, 600 hp (450 kW)
Maximum speed
335 km/h (208 mph) at 1,500 m (5,000 ft)
Cruise speed
233 km/h (145 mph)
Range
1,170 km (730 mi)
Service ceiling
7,400 m (24,200 ft)
Climb rate
6.1 m/s (1,200 ft/min)
Armament
Provision for up to 3 × 0.30 in machine guns; light bombs and rockets on armed post-war versions

Costs & production

Cost per flight hour
Hedged estimate: roughly US$600–1,000 for a privately operated warbird today, driven by a radial burning on the order of 30–40 US gallons of avgas an hour plus engine overhaul reserves; operator figures vary widely
Production
15,000+ of the T-6, SNJ and Harvard family, commonly given as about 15,500; some counts including derivatives exceed 17,000
Programme
1935 NA-16 first flight; AT-6 from 1940; T-6G remanufacture from 1949; last front-line training use with South Africa in 1995
04The T-6 Texan’s variants: the main family members
  • NA-16 / BT-9: fixed-gear ancestors of 1935 onwards.
  • BC-1 / BC-1A: basic combat trainers with retractable gear, 1937.
  • AT-6, AT-6A: the first Advanced Trainers; SNJ-3 the Navy equivalent.
  • AT-6B: gunnery training version.
  • AT-6C / SNJ-4 / Harvard IIA: built with substitute materials to save aluminium.
  • AT-6D / SNJ-5 / Harvard III: 24-volt electrics; the most numerous wartime types.
  • AT-16 / Harvard IIB: built by Noorduyn in Canada, over 2,500.
  • T-6G: post-war remanufacture with revised cockpit and more fuel; LT-6G for forward air control in Korea.
  • Harvard 4: new-build T-6G equivalent from Canadian Car & Foundry.
  • CAC Wirraway: Australian armed derivative, 755 built.
05The T-6 Texan’s operating costs: what keeps a Harvard flying

No official modern cost-per-hour figure exists for the military T-6, so any number is an estimate. For today’s civil owners the large items are fuel for the R-1340, which commonly burns in the region of 30 to 40 US gallons an hour, oil consumption typical of a large radial, and a reserve towards engine overhaul, which on this type runs to tens of thousands of dollars. Add insurance, hangarage and inspections and owners commonly arrive at somewhere between US$600 and US$1,000 an hour. Purchase prices for airworthy examples vary greatly with condition and history.

Timeline

The T-6 Texan from the NA-16 to the last Harvard

1935

NA-16 first flight

North American’s fixed-gear two-seater flies on 1 April, the ancestor of the whole family.

1937

BC-1 enters service

The first retractable-gear basic combat trainers reach the US Army Air Corps from June.

1938

Britain orders the Harvard

The RAF signs for its first 200 aircraft in June.

1940

AT-6 Texan

The Air Corps creates the Advanced Trainer category; Noorduyn in Canada receives its Harvard contract.

1942

Wirraway in combat

On 26 December an RAAF Wirraway shoots down a Japanese Ki-43 near Buna, New Guinea.

1948

T-6

The new US Air Force redesignates the type T-6; Harvards and AT-6s fly in the Arab-Israeli war.

1949

T-6G programme

Around 1,800 airframes are remanufactured to T-6G standard.

1950

Mosquitoes over Korea

Within weeks of the war starting, T-6s begin airborne forward air control; more than 40,000 sorties follow.

1955–62

Algeria

France arms T-6Gs for counter-insurgency, eventually forming dozens of light support squadrons.

1961–75

Portugal in Africa

Portugal deploys more than 100 T-6Gs in its colonial wars.

1965

RCAF retires the Harvard

Canada ends 26 years of Harvard service as the Tutor jet takes over.

1995

The last Harvard class

The South African Air Force retires its Harvards in November, replaced by the PC-7 Mk II Astra.

Stories & Eyewitnesses

Stories & eyewitnesses: the T-6 Texan at war and in peace

Combat

The Mosquitoes of Korea

Slow, unarmoured trainers became the eyes of UN air power.

Read the full story
When the Korean War broke out in June 1950, the US Air Force had no airborne forward air controllers. Within about two weeks pilots were flying low over the front in borrowed liaison aircraft and then in T-6s, finding targets and marking them for fighter-bombers. The unit became the 6147th Tactical Control Group, and its aircraft were called Mosquitoes. According to the National Museum of the US Air Force they flew more than 40,000 sorties by the war’s end, working low and slow and dangerously exposed to anti-aircraft fire. The unit was disbanded in 1956; the idea returned a decade later in Vietnam.
Combat

The Wirraway that shot down a fighter

An Australian trainer derivative claimed a Japanese fighter in 1942.

Read the full story
On 26 December 1942 Pilot Officer J. S. Archer of the RAAF was flying Wirraway A20-103 on a reconnaissance and artillery-spotting sortie near Buna in Papua when he dived on a Japanese fighter below him and shot it down. It was first reported as a Zero; later research identified it as a Nakajima Ki-43 Oscar of the 11th Sentai. The aircraft survived the war and was taken on charge by the Australian War Memorial in 1959 with more than 3,371 flying hours. It is displayed in Canberra.
Combat

The Milkman of the Greek mountains

Greek Harvards flew dawn patrols in the civil war.

Read the full story
During the Greek Civil War the Royal Hellenic Air Force used three squadrons of T-6D and T-6G aircraft for close air support, observation and artillery spotting against communist guerrillas in the mountains. Because they appeared so reliably at first light, the guerrillas reportedly nicknamed the aircraft the Milkman. It was one of the first of many wars in which a trainer, fitted with guns and light bombs, became a useful counter-insurgency weapon.
Combat

Algeria: the T-6 as a gunship

France built a whole light-attack force around armed T-6Gs.

Read the full story
During the Algerian War France formed special light support squadrons, the Escadrilles d’Aviation Légère d’Appui (EALA), flying T-6Gs armed with machine guns, rockets and bombs. At their peak some 38 EALAs were active, the largest grouping being GALA 72. The T-6’s slow speed, endurance and ability to operate from rough strips suited the war of patrols and ambushes in the djebels, though crews were vulnerable to ground fire. Many French pilots of the era flew their first operational missions in it.
Combat

Tel Aviv, 1948: a gunner’s victory

A Syrian AT-6 rear gunner shot down an Israeli fighter.

Read the full story
In the 1948 Arab-Israeli war both sides flew the type. The Syrian Air Force used around 20 AT-6s for ground support, and in one engagement a Syrian rear gunner shot down an Israeli Avia S-199, the Czech-built derivative of the Messerschmitt Bf 109. Israel, for its part, bought Harvards and flew several in the final stages of the war, later using them again in the 1956 Sinai campaign. Few trainers can claim a fighter kill; the T-6 family can claim several.
Combat

Buenos Aires, 16 June 1955

Navy SNJs bombed the capital in a failed coup.

Read the full story
During the attempt to overthrow President Juan Perón, rebel Argentine Navy aircraft including SNJ-4s attacked the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, killing hundreds of civilians. One SNJ was shot down by a loyalist Gloster Meteor. In 1963 Navy SNJs were in action again during a naval revolt, attacking army armour columns and destroying several Sherman tanks before one was lost to anti-aircraft fire.
People

Flying home one-handed

A Pakistani pilot brought back a shot-up T-6G in 1971.

Read the full story
In the 1971 India-Pakistan war the Pakistan Air Force used T-6Gs at night for ground support. During the war Squadron Leader Israr Qureshi’s aircraft was hit by Indian anti-aircraft fire, which broke his arm. He flew the T-6 back and landed it safely with one hand, a measure of both his determination and the forgiving handling of a trainer that had been designed to survive the mistakes of students.
Training

Twenty-five thousand Canadian pilots

The Harvard was the backbone of Canada’s air training.

Read the full story
The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, created in December 1939, turned Canada into a vast flying school. Noorduyn received a Harvard contract in January 1940 and delivered from January 1941; Canadian Car & Foundry later built Harvard 4s. According to the National Air Force Museum of Canada, the RCAF flew the Harvard from 1939 to 1965 and it trained about 25,000 pilots during and after the war. The museum’s own Mk II, serial 3270, survived a nose-over landing by a lost student in a snowbound field in 1944.
Display

South Africa’s farewell formation

The SAAF flew Harvards for more than half a century.

Read the full story
Partly because of the international arms embargo, the South African Air Force kept the Harvard as its basic trainer long after others had retired it. The Central Flying School, at Dunnottar and from 1991 at Langebaanweg, finally replaced it with the PC-7 Mk II Astra in November 1995, after 53 years of training SAAF pilots. A large farewell formation marked the occasion in the air force’s 75th anniversary year. Dozens of ex-SAAF Harvards still fly, including those of the Flying Lions display team.
Display

Hollywood’s Zero

Modified T-6s played Japanese aircraft for decades.

Read the full story
With few genuine Japanese aircraft left airworthy, film studios turned to the T-6. Converted single-seat Texans with altered canopies and cowlings stood in for Mitsubishi Zeros and Nakajima Kate torpedo bombers in Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), and appeared again in the television series Baa Baa Black Sheep and in The Final Countdown (1980). Some of these film conversions still fly at airshows in their Japanese markings.
Record

The RAF’s longest-serving aircraft

One Harvard outlived the jets it trained pilots for.

Read the full story
The RAF withdrew the Harvard from mainstream training in the 1950s, but a handful lingered in odd roles. One Harvard taken on strength in 1945 was still working into the 1990s as a slow chase aircraft for helicopter test flying, a career that made it one of the longest-serving aircraft in RAF history. A wartime Harvard IIB, FE905, is displayed today at the RAF Museum in London.
Racing

A racing class of its own

After the war the T-6 found a new life at Reno.

Read the full story
Surplus T-6s were cheap and plentiful after 1945, and air racing organisers created a class just for them. The T-6 class became a fixture of the National Championship Air Races at Reno, where near-identical aircraft raced wingtip to wingtip around the pylons, making it a test of pilot skill rather than engineering budget. With hundreds still airworthy worldwide, the type remains one of the most common warbirds in the sky.
Gallery

The T-6 Texan in pictures

T-6 Texan
T-6 TexanPhoto: Alan Wilson from Peterborough, Cambs, UK / CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
T-6 Texan
T-6 TexanPhoto: User:MatthiasKabel / CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
T-6 Texan
T-6 TexanPhoto: L-Bit / CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
T-6 Texan
T-6 TexanPhoto: User:MatthiasKabel / CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
T-6 Texan
T-6 TexanPhoto: Paul from United Kingdom / CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Operations

Where the T-6 Texan flies and flew

Service Record

The T-6 Texan’s record

The T-6 was built to teach, and its true record is the hundreds of thousands of pilots who learned on it. Yet armed versions and derivatives fought in a remarkable number of wars, from New Guinea in 1942 to Korea, Greece, Algeria, Portuguese Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, usually as forward air control or light attack aircraft.

40,000+Mosquito FAC sorties in Korea
38French light support squadrons in Algeria at peak
100+T-6Gs deployed by Portugal in Africa

See how training and combat types compare in the military aircraft statistics database. Figures are approximate.

Questions & Answers

Everything people ask about the T-6 Texan

Can I fly in a North American T-6 Texan?
MiGFlug does not offer flights in the T-6 Texan, but you can fly several genuine military jets today, from the L-39 Albatros to the MiG-21, see MiGFlug’s jet flights.
What is the difference between the T-6 Texan, SNJ and Harvard?
They are essentially the same aircraft under different names: Texan (and from 1948 T-6) for the US Army Air Forces and US Air Force, SNJ for the US Navy and Marine Corps, and Harvard for the British Commonwealth air forces.
How many T-6 Texans were built?
More than 15,000 aircraft of the family were built, commonly given as about 15,500; some counts that include licence-built derivatives exceed 17,000.
Why was the T-6 called the Pilot Maker?
Because it was the advanced trainer in which a huge share of Allied pilots made the step from primary trainers to front-line fighters and bombers during and after the Second World War.
Did the T-6 Texan see combat?
Yes. T-6s flew forward air control in Korea and light attack in Greece, Algeria, Portuguese Africa, the Middle East and Pakistan, and the Australian Wirraway derivative fought in New Guinea.
When did the T-6 retire from military service?
The South African Air Force was the last major user of the Harvard as a pilot trainer, retiring it in November 1995.
Why is the Harvard so loud?
Its direct-drive propeller tips approach the speed of sound at take-off power, producing the type’s famous rasping howl.
The part of the museum you can fly

You can’t fly the T-6 Texan.
These, you can.

Most of this museum you can only look at. These genuine military jets you can fly yourself with MiGFlug — with aerobatics and time on the controls.

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Related Aircraft

Continue the tour

The NamesakeBeechcraft T-6 Texan IIThe turboprop that revived the Texan name for a new generation of US and allied student pilots.Read the Beechcraft T-6 Texan II storyThe SuccessorNorth American T-28 TrojanNorth American’s more powerful post-war trainer, which replaced the T-6 in US service and also went to war.Read the North American T-28 Trojan storyThe Next StepNorth American P-51 MustangThe fighter many Texan graduates went on to fly, built by the same company.Read the North American P-51 Mustang story
Sources & Further Reading

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