SNJ-5 101 High Sky Wing
Description:
Base:
KMAF, Midland, TX
Website:
| SNJ-5 Specs | |
|---|---|
| Role | Trainer |
| Manufacturer | North American Aviation |
| Introduced | 1935 |
| Power | 1 × Pratt & Whitney R-1340-AN-1 Wasp radial engine, 600 hp |
| Length | 29 ft |
| Height | 11 ft 8 in |
| Wingspan | 42 ft |
| Range | 730 miles |
The North American SNJ/T-6 Texan is an advanced trainer developed in 1935, which has been used by forces from sixty countries. The U.S. Navy designated it the SNJ, and in the British Commonwealth countries it is known as the Harvard. The distinctive Texan triangular rudder was added after several model designation changes. Approximately one-third of the total produced (5,035 of 15,495) were delivered to the U.S. Navy.
In 1937 Mitsubushi purchased two original prototypes (NA-16) for demonstrators and for research into licensing for mass production. However, they produced an aircraft that bore very little resemblance to the prototype. Their aircraft(allied code name Oak) were used in small numbers by the Imperial Japanese Navy from about 1942. The Japanese Air Self Defense Force did operate Texans after World War II.
While the T-6 was designed as an advanced trainer, it has seen it’s share of combat. It was used by U.S. forces in Korea and Vietnam as a forward air control aircraft; by the RAF in Kenya; France in Algeria; Portugal during the Portuguese Colonial War; Spain during the Ifni War; and by Pakistan in their 1971 war as a night ground support aircraft.
The T-6 remains a popular warbird and has made appearances in numerous movies, in disguise, as a Mitsubishi Zero (Tora! Tora! Tora! and The Final Countdown) and as a Republic P-47 (A Bridge Too Far).
