Fairchild Trainers

[broadhurst@talk21.com]

'An excellent development; a mailing list for Fairchild Club members,
I am sure it will be a great success.

I have been a member for several years but do not own or fly a
Fairchild. As some members will already know I am researching the
history of the various Fairchild primary trainers and the flying
schools that used them. This interest started out many years ago,
partly due to the lack of published information about the type.

Why should an aviation enthusiast in England become interested in an
American trainer plane? May have been mispent youth! Joking apart --
as a teenager in the '60s I was involved in a small local aircraft
preservation group and the first Fairchild I saw was a Warner powered
F-24 that dropped in at a fly-in. Compared to the light aircraft I
was more used to seeing this was a big sturdy machine.

I found a fair bit information relating to numbers built and serial
and c/no. batches for the wartime F-24 Argus (the majority of which
were built for the RAF and many used in the UK). In the course of
delving into Argus data I became aware how little there was of
similar information was available on the more numerous Fairchild M-62
primary trainers.

I also eventually became aware, though few Fairchild Cornells ever
made the British shores, that very many wartime RAF (and
Commonwealth) pilots did some of their flying training on the type.
In very approximate figures, 1550 were used by the RCAF and RAF in
Canada, 400 by the RAF in Southern Rhodesia (as part of the British
Commonwealth Air Training Plan) and a further 100 in India (for
training Indian RAF and British Army Glider pilots).

This in addition to the hundreds of PT-19 and PT-23 used in USAAF
primary flying schools of which most US members will be more
familiary with. I am convinced the total production of Fairchild M-
62 variants in the US, Canada and Brazil, actually exceeds the
production figures of the Boeing Stearman.

Whilst I do not have the complete picture nor all the available AAF,
RAF and RCAF records, I should be very happy to try and delve into
the service history of the surviving PT-19, PT-23 and PT-26 Cornells.
These were the instruments of the Allied victory in 1945, every bit
as much as the operational combat planes and should be recorded as
such. The data contained in the subject's civil documentation can
often add to the overall picture.

This is usually possible with the aid of some available identity,
such as the manufacturer's or the USAAF, RCAF or RAF serial number.
A note of caution -- I have become aware that a few aircraft have
been restored using identites adopted from other Fairchild PT's.
Whilst this is sometimes neccesary to certificate a restoration
project -- it does mean that any attempt on my part of establish the
service history of the adopted identity is wholly inappropriate.

This is, of course, not just a problem with Fairchild Trainer's.
There are recorded cases of similar adoptions with a variety of
restored warbirds from P-51s, to Ryans and Tiger Moths.

My best wishes to all Fairchild flyers and restorers, Tony Broadhurst'