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Here are all of the various types of aircraft Dad flew. Some of the links below are just photos and some
have information about the specific aircraft. They are listed in alphabetical order by military designation. So, B-17
comes before BT-13.
His first experience was with the Link Trainer. This device was the Microsoft Flight Simulator of it's day. It allowed cadets to crash and burn without crashing and burning. Which up until 1934 (when the US military started using the Link) a lot of cadets were doing. Before the Link Trainer, the learning curve was quite steep. The first plane he flew was a Stearman, or PT-13. PT means "Primary Trainer" and that's just what it was. The Stearman, or Kaydet, was usually the first plane any hopeful Army pilot flew during training. They eventually graduated to the later versions of the Stearman; the PT-17 and PT-27. The next plane Dad flew was a BT-13. BT means "Basic Trainer", which in military jargon is after Primary. He then moved on to the AT-17. And yes, it means "Advanced Trainer". The UC-78 designation came later because it was also used to ferry pilots to their assignments. In either case, it has two engines allowing the cadets to get their multi-engine rating. At this point in his training, he moved into the B-17. If I have to tell you what the "B" stands for, please leave this site now and go do some shopping on Yahoo or go get ripped-off on eBay. He also put in time in the AT-11 which is a twin-engined trainer for bombardier training. Most likely to get some interactive training between pilot and bombardier. I like to think of Pop as a B-17 pilot, which he was, but he logged more hours in an L-19 "Bird Dog" than in any other aircraft. Which is why I have five L-19 links! When the Army acquired helicopters in the mid 50's, he took rotary-wing training and spent the last few years of his flight career in the H-13's and H-23's. The H-13 and H-23 look similar but the H-13 was built by Bell and the H-23 was built by Hiller. The links with the asterisks (*) are great photos! Yeah, yeah. I'll get more B-17 links, too! I'm going to try to put the entire flight log into Adobe Acrobat Reader format. When I do, I'll have it here for downloading. Trivia! - Name the Cowboy/Pilot that flew "Songbird" from the Flying Crown Ranch. Give up? "Out of the clear blue of the western sky comes... Sky King!" I used to sit in front of the TV on Saturday mornings (at 600 Appleberry Drive) and watch the best show about a cowboy that was also a pilot! It didn't get any better than that! Remember Cowboys? Sky King flew two planes during the shows. The first was the AT-17/UC-78 which was also known as the T-50. Later, he flew a Cessna 310, which the Army designated the L-27. I thought it was so cool that my dad flew the same types of planes as Sky King!
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