North American’s T-6: A Definitive History of the World’s Most Famous Trainer
by Dan Hagedorn, Specialty Press, North Branch, Minn., 2009, $32.95.
Using the word “definitive” in a title is risky, but this beautiful volume from Specialty Press is exactly that: the definitive history of an enormously important airplane. In it the handwritten notations of three North American Aviation giants—Dutch Kindelberger, John “Lee” Atwood and H.R. Raynor—adorn the December 10, 1934, sketch of what would become the most produced trainer of the Free World, the North American T-6.
Things were different in those days, with no computers to deal with, no Congressional committees to stroke, no angry stockholders demanding dividends; the fledgling company rolled out the prototype aircraft, the NA-16, just four months after its conception. Dutch and his boys probably anticipated big things for the trainer, perhaps a production order of as many as 200 airplanes, with another 50 going to foreign sales. They had little idea that thousands of the aircraft would be built, nor that it would remain in first-line use for the next two decades and be actively competing as a racer in the 21st century. Even more important, there was no way to know that their experience with the NA-16 would not only lead to the establishment of a complete portfolio of trainers, fighter bombers and fighters, it would set the stage for masterful follow-on aircraft that included the B-25 Mitchell and P-51 Mustang.
As with most Specialty Press books, North American’s T-6 presents a thoughtful mixture of color and black-and-white photos, illustrations from manuals, company drawings and fact-filled tables accompanying a well-written narrative. This book is the best of both worlds: all the vital facts and all the interesting ones. The vital facts range from production and performance statistics to the worldwide use of the airplanes; the interesting ones include such jewels as a Syrian T-6D shooting down an Israeli Avia S.199 (Czechbuilt Me-109).
Originally published in the March 2010 issue of Aviation History. To subscribe, click here.
