Curtiss AT-9 Jeep Survivors

[John Kerr]

Here is a close of the aircraft at Kelly AFB, TX. photo taken on 1-8-1983 by me. You can clearly make out the tail number. This aircraft was recovered from a ranch in south TX.

[Warbird Mechanic]

My father flew AT-9's out of Loredo Field in Loredo, Texas in '43. He was always a little afraid of this airplane. Most of the guys that trained in these aircraft usually went on to fly P-38's and Martin B-26 Marauders. My father said the AT-9 refutably would not fly on single engine. It cashed in on landings at 90 mph and was not the easiest aircraft to land. One of the guys in my father's training class buzzed the field so low onetime that he actually shaved 6 inches from the tips of both propellers when they hit the ground, which caused a major vibration problem. His instructor took over the controls, managed to go around, get the aircraft into the pattern and land the plane safely. Both props, engines and engine mounts had to be replaced. The mechanics were amazed the plane could still fly like that. The CO at the base severely reprimanded the instructor for allowing his student to buzz the field. The AT-9 thats in our museum in Dayton is made up from two airframes while other parts were reversed engineered and fabricated inhouse from factory drawings.

Jim

[EDowning]

I want one.

[jamesintucson]

Yeah I saw the Pima AT-9A a few years back...she's rough. I've never seen any
evidence of the wings and engine nacelles, just a bent and twisted carcass of a
fuselage with the wings missing at the root..looking as if they were axe-chopped
or violently ripped of the airplane, which is plausable considering the country
she went down in. The fuse is the remains of 42-56882, AT-9A which went down
10Dec1942 while on a search for a missing AT-17. She struck a ridge of the Black Mountains
in the Gila National Forest near Hot Springs(now Truth or Consequences), NM. The crew survived.

Baugher lists another AT-9(42-56999) reported seen in the Pima storage yard in 2002, but I've never
seen photos or Pima list that wreck...and keep forgetting to ask.

List's attribute the s/n# to the NMUSAF AT-9 as 41-12150..didn't know she was a composite.
But as rare as they are, I can see why.

The AT-9 is another of those Golden Age leftovers which filled in during the
early days of WW2 until the Nation got it's breath and geared-up for the task at hand...
It'd be neat to see one fly. She always looked like quite a "hot little ship"..though
I can see the resemblance of the Jeep(or Djeep) in the Popeye cartoons.

I keep hoping to see an AT-9 or 2 showup abandoned and engineless at some
defunct forgotten duster strip...similar to the hangar in the desert in "Always"..pipedreams.
If wishes were fishes Pee-Wee...

Pima AT-9A remains...
www.pimaair.org/Acftdatapics/Curtiss%20AT-9A.htm

We actually do have almost all of the AT-9. The wings are all present aft of the firewalls. It is on the list for eventual restoration but not anytime soon. We have never had parts of any other AT-9s. The AFM siphoned up absolutely everything they could get at the time. I've been told that whatever they had left when the restoration was done was scrapped. Although to be fair I doubt there was much of use left over.

James

[Steve Nelson]

Here are a couple of shots I snapped of the Pima AT-9 in August, 2004..

As for the AFM scrapping unused parts, I'm not surprised. A few years ago when I took the restoration tour the guide showed us some AT-10 outboard wing panels. They had several, and said the best would be used in the restoration of their aircraft, and the rest scrapped. To be fair, the wings are wood, and the museum may have been concerned about liability issues if the parts had found their way into a flying restoration.

SN

[airnutz]

Airnutz,

Those old yearbooks sometimes come through with some real gold! I have an old (1970's?) Air Classics or Wings with a couple of photos of the Seafire and B-24 at Spartan along with the multitude of C-45/Beech 18s that populated the school, but I have no idea which box it is in. I'm thinking that there was a P-38 at Spartan in the late 40's as well.

Scott

Well shux! No joy in finding an AT-9 in the 1948 Spartan School of Aeronautics annual,
"Vapor Trails". There were a few nuggets, but the photo quality, size and quality of the paper
tempers ones enthusiasm.
A B-24(maybe a J) is siiting out on the ramp next to a C-46(buzz#55), which by the notes
to the side, the students would run them up from time to time. A couple of
Bt-13's..one with partial NC65### ...a fairly good photo of it..polished aluminium with
the 1/3 the cowl in dark paint which tapers to cheatline ending under the front cockpit. Dark rudder.

Various Stearman's, one with a sunburst upper wing and cheatline on the fuse, NC5057N..a flyer. A Cessna Bobcat at the Commercial pilot school and a Luscombe(NC2487K) there as well. Good photos of a Cub on floats at the Spartan Seaplane Base at Good Lake
near Miami, Fla.

A good photo of the student's "The Big Ten Flying Club" J-3, NC38500.

1948 was the 1st year for the jet engine course at Spartan and there is a photo
of a couple of students drooling over what appears to be Jumo 004 still in it's 262 nacelle.

Across the field at Tulsa Municipal, there are a couple of DC-4's & -6's in American
Airlines livery. Also a couple of what would be brand-new AA Convair 240's...AA took delivery of the 1st ones in Feb 1948.

What caught my eye about this annual is its' blue cover with a stylized yellow Lockheed
P-80..complete with yellow "whoosh" lines traiing behind and Spartan logo.

Speaking of behind..no PC crap here, student cartoonist William Paisley had
an eye for the finer female form. Not too buxum..but definately a leg &thigh man. Need to see his later work..

Thanks JamesIT for filling in the blanks..glad to see you good folks have a
bit more to work with.

Thank-you all for the stories and photos of yet another of my favorite "unobtainums" !

[Second Air Force]

Airnutz,

The caption about running up the B-24 is absolutely correct, I recently stumbled on a letter from a student at Spartan in the late forties that mentioned using the Lib for engine runup procedure training. That aircraft (44-48781) is the B-24 now at Barksdale AFB. Thanks for sharing the info in the yearbook.

Scott

[tulsaboy]

Tulsa Air and Space Museum has the Jumo engine, with some of it dismantled for a cut-away display.

kevin

[airtanker]

Hi all,
A negitive of the Spartan AT-9s (2) is for sale on Ebay, Item number: 270128722681.
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[barnbstormer]

Here is an original Curtiss-Wright factory photo of a group of AT-9s. In the factory file is their text for the wartime press release: "May 24, 1942; For Immediate Release; New Army Planes For Training More Pilots For Multi-Engined Fighters and Bombers. Illustrating America's rapidly growing aerial offensive, this picture shows a number of new Curtiss AT-9 transition trainers just off the assembly line of a new aircraft plant of Curtiss-Wright Corporation "somewhere in the Middle West."