Photo courtesy of Warbird Alley

The Oklahoma Wing of the Commemorative Air Force will display their PT-19 (PT-26) Airplane at Ada Air Expo. In addition, they will bring their traveling PX in which they sell aviation memorabilia to support their efforts to “Keep ‘em Flying”.

Oklahoma Wing Fairchild PT-26 N519SH

Our last Wing restoration was begun in 1990 with the purchase of this airplane. The plane was originally delivered to the US Army Air Corps in December 1943. Some 47 years later, when the Wing picked it up, it was literally a basket case as that is how many of the pieces was received; in baskets! It took more than three years to piece this airplane back together again. There were two variants of the basic PT-19 and these were the PT-23 and the PT-26. All were called Cornell. During the planning stages of the restoration it was decided to complete our PT-26 as a PT-19 variant. The planes first flight of the with us was in December 1994. The airplane has operated with the Oklahoma Wing since that time and has logged hundreds of hours of flying with little or no problems.

The PT-19 (Primary Trainer - Model 19) Cornell was designed to be a more advanced primary trainer in that it had many of the same characteristics of the Boeing/Stearman PT-13, but had a wing-loading factor that was about 43% more than the PT-13. In this way the PT-19 provided the US Army Air Corps pilots with a trainer that was more like the fighters they would eventually fly, rather than the older biplanes. Other advantages were that the Cornell had instruments for blind-flying, and could be fitted with a hood over the front cockpit for blind-flying training. The PT-19 was built by Fairchild Aircraft at Hagerstown, MD; Aeronca Aircraft at Middletown, OH; Howard Aircraft at Chicago, IL; St Louis Aircraft Corp at St Louis, MO and Fleet Aircraft Ltd at Ft Erie, Ontario. Although reports on total production vary somewhat, it appears that about 4889 PT-19’s were built with about 272 still on the FAA records.

Fairchild PT-19 Cornell
Type: two-seat primary trainer
Crew: 2
Armament: none
Specifications:
length: 27’ 8 1/2” (8.45m)
height: 7’ 7 1/2” (2.97m)
wingspan: 36’ 0” (10.97m)
wing area: 200 sq. ft. (18.58 sq. m)
empty wt: 2022 lbs (917 kg)
max wt” 2736 lbs (1241 kg) at take off
Power:
Single engine - Ranger L-440-C5 inline rated @ 200 hp
Performance:
range: 400 miles (644km)
cruise speed: 101 mph (163 km/h)
max speed: 122 mph (196 km/h) at 9000 feet
ceiling: 13,200 ft (4025 m) (This is a somewhat dubious claim)