Vultee BT-13 Valiant World War II basic trainer aircraft

Manufacturer: Vultee Aircraft, Downey California

Country of Origin: USA

Type: Basic Trainer (BT-13)

Power Plant: Pratt & Whitney R 985-AN-1, Wasp Junior 9-cylinder radial, air-cooled engine, 450 HP.

Crew: Two seats in tandem for Pilot and Instructor

Armament: None

Max. Speed, 180 mph; Cruise 135mph; Climb 1350 ft per min

Service Ceiling: 21,650 ft. Range: 520 miles.

Empty weight 3,375 lbs. Max takeoff Weight: 4,745 lbs.

Wing span: 42 ft. Length: 28 ft. 10 in. Height 12 ft. 4 in. Wing area: 239 sq. ft.

Maximum diving speed 230 mph.

In 1938 the US Army Air Corps was evaluating a new basic combat trainer. designated the Vultee V-54, it was considered operationally ideal as a trainer but was regarded as being unnecessarily complicated and overpowered. Vultee then developed the V-74 trainer to meet this requirement having a cantilever low-wing with fixed landing gear, dual controls and flight instruments as standard equipment. The initial version was designated BT-13 by the US Army Air Corps and nicknamed the Valiant. Satisfactory testing brought in an order of 300 aircraft in September 1939, at that time the largest order placed by the US Army for basic trainers.

From September 1939 to the Summer of 1944 a total of 11,537 Vultees were built to meet the needs of the US Army Air Corps and the US Navy, making the plane one of the most important American trainer aircraft of World War II. The BT-13 production run outnumbered all other Basic Trainer (BT) types produced.

The BT-13 was an important step in the training syllabus of combat pilots-to-be of WW II. The Vultee Valiant was the next aircraft cadet pilots flew after learning to fly in primary trainers such as the PT-17 Stearman, Fairchild PT-19 or the Ryan PT-22. Unlike the primary trainers that were fitted with fixed pitch propellers, the BT-13 was somewhat less forgiving than the primary trainers which introduce the feel of a more powerful and complex aircraft having a controllable two-position variable pitch propeller with an electrical system, flight instruments and two-way radio communications. Training included formation flight, instrument flying and aerobatics.

After mastering the BT-13, pilots would then advance to the North American AT-6/SNJ Texan for fighter pilot training and then to twin engine advance training for bombers or transport type aircraft.

There were numerous versions of the BT-13 Valiant, followed by the BT-13A (6,407 built) differing only in the of lack of landing gear fairings. and in having a variant of the R-985 Wasp Junior engine and later by the BT-13B (1,125 built) with a improved electrical system that differed from the BT-13A model in having a 24-volt system, rather than the original 12-volt electrical system.

Almost every U.S. pilot and many of the allied pilots who were trained in the U.S. learned their basic skills in the BT-13. Due to a shortage of Pratt & Whitney R-985 engines, Vultee began to equip the BT-13 airframes with the 450 HP Wright R-975-11 Whirlwind radial engine. This final variant was designated as the BT-15 (1,693 built).

The Navy quickly recognized the ruggedness of the BT-13 and selected it to fulfill the same training roles. A total of 1,350 BT-13A and 650 BT-13B aircraft were transferred to the US Navy which designated them SNV-1 and SNV-2B respectively.

Under the designation XBT-16B, one BT-13A was rebuilt with a plastic fuselage for evaluation. As soon as World War II ended all versions in service were retired from the USAAF and US Navy. After 1948 a handful of BT-13's receive the revised designation T-13.

The Valiant was also known as the "Vultee Vibrator", nicknamed from its pilots, due to the fact that it had a tendency at low engine rpm to shake and rattle the canopy as it approached it's stall speed.

Less than 50 of these aircraft are flying today and have become very popular with warbird collectors and can often be seen at airshows around the country.

Orange Trees and Airplanes

The biography of the Downey plant begins in 1929, when part of what is now the NASA/Reusable Space Systems space complex was a ranch owned and operated by James Hughan. Mr. E. M. Smith, a local industrialist, purchased a 72-acre tract from Hughan and converted it into an airport and manufacturing facility. Some seven years later, after a number of unsuccessful attempts by Smith's Emsco Aircraft Corporation and other tenants to build and market airplanes ranging from passenger craft to a folding-wing creation that would fit in a garage, the facility was taken over by a young aircraft designer and entrepreneur named Gerard Vultee, and Downey was on its way. By 1938, the Vultee Aviation Manufacturing Company has 1,500 employees and was producing planes for several countries.

An era was ending and another was beginning that would change forever the face of the aircraft industry. Even the visionary Vultee, who had been killed with his wife in a plane crash in 1938, could not have foreseen the colorful and history-making future awaiting his unpretentious little plant.

Vultee Aircraft later merged with Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, a combination that would become known as Convair. At its plants in San Diego and Downey during World War II, Consolidated Vultee produced thousands of planes for the American War effort.

To support this unprecedented production at Downey, the Army Air Corps and Vultee greatly expanded the plant in the early 1940s. As the war wound down, so did Downey.

In 1945, after the signing of the armistice with Germany and with Japan, the doors to the plant began closing, ostensibly for the last time.

| BT-13 Discussion Board |

| BT-13 fuselage access door diagram | BT-13 Fuselage restoration view | BT-13 under restoration view |

Links to sites

| Aviation museums and history | Airshow schedules and event | History of World War II 1939-1945 |