Inside The Cockpit - AT-6G Texan 

got surprised by a T-6 doing some aerobatics over my house the other day, got some stellar pictures

That airframe is in amazing condition. Either well maintained or a recent restoration, but beautiful either way. Stunning!

I am simple man, I see Texas, I click.

A mate of mine trained on Havards in the South African Air Force back in the early 70's. The detachable joy stick in the rear position had another use .. for the Instructor to get an errant Student Pilot's immediate attention .. via his flight helmet (aka 'Bone Dome') .. stick to helmet .. enthusiastically. More than a few Students sported dented Bone Domes as a result of less than desired flight performance 😊. The Harvard supposedly had the reputation of being one of the noisiest single-engined WW2-era aircraft with a distinctive 'drone'. As a youngster, we lived near to a coastal air force base. One always knew when Harvard's were airborne .. couldn't mistake the unique sound.

I have been lucky enough to fly in a T6 twice in my life - I love them.

A tale from "The Tumbling Mirth", a book on reminiscences from the RCAF then and "now" (at time of publishing for "now"): in World War II, Air Station Trenton, Ontario, now Canadian Forces Base Trenton, was where the advanced pilot training took place and where pilots were assessed into either bomber or fighter roles. There was a stiff proscription against mock dogfighting - not that this ever managed to stop young men from enjoying a little ACM action. The pilot in question had arranged with a buddy to meet at a specified location off the base for a little mock dogfight. He was at the appointed spot, at the appointed time, and saw another Harvard approach. His buddy. The two started to maneuver through the skies, when he got close and had a shock: two heads in the cockpit. Not his buddy, a student in a more junior class with his instructor. Oh, shit. He tries everything he can think of to get away, but they get close enough that he knows they've got his aircraft ID. He meekly goes home, expecting to be flying a desk for the remainder of the war. But the rest of the day passes without incident - no call to the commanding officer's office. no word on any antics in the air. No word, that is, until he's sitting having dinner in the mess, when an instructor pilot sits down at his table with a cup of coffee in hand. The instructor looks at the ceiling and addresses nobody in particular, "You'd think a Harvard with one man in it would be able to OUTCLIMB a Harvard with two men in it." He then moves to another table. No further reference to this flight was made for the rest of his time in Trenton.

"I'll try spinning - that's a good..." INTENTIONAL SPINNING PROHIBITED

There was one as gate guardian in front of the quarters where I served my stint in the AMI (Aeronautica Militare Italiana). Beautiful plane, painted bright yellow. I liked it.

you had at me "went full Texan"

13:19 "Serve in silence" is not how I'd describe the distinctive sound of a Harvard's prop tips going supersonic. :-) Great vid.

I live close to the Condor Squadron which is made up of AT6 Texans and fly out of the Van Nuys Airport in Van Nuys California. On just about any given day you can see a group of these Texans flying formation across the Valley. They always fly a tight formation on Memorial Day, June 6th, 4th of July and Veterans Day. I’ve grown up with them flying over and love to see them. I feel like they are apart of my family.

I'm gone into the cockpit of a T-6 it was the first time in enter in an airplane's cockpit. It was in Toulouse in the Ailes Anciennes Toulouse-Blagnac aircraft museum. ( it's a wunderful aircarft museum go there ). I was only 7 or 8 years old with my grandpa and I have seen a wonderful old yellow aircraft with a beautiful noseart. ( it was a plane of french flying school based in Morocco ) I was captivated by this plane. At this moment a man working in the museum come and see I love the T-6. He ask me : do you want to jump into the cockpit ? ( or something like that ) I answer something like " yes of cours eI want but is it really possible ? It was the man open the cockpit I come into it and it was the paradise ! I loved it ! The man explain me the yaw pitch roll and throtle controls. He also explain me the artificial horizon, the turn and slip indicator and some other things... I'm so grateful to this man... I think this experience played a very big role in my love for planes and aeronautic because since this time I love it. i think the book "Squadron 80" of Roal Dall was also important because I read it as I also was 7 years old because it was in my classroom of the time. So this big text to say I love the T-6 and it play a big rol for me... I wish I will fly with this aircraft at least once in my llife... ( and sorry for my English , I am French )

I got to sit in the cockpit of a T-6 when I was 11 years old; I'd love to fly one someday! Great video about it!

I was reliably told by old WWII movies that that is actually a zero

In Sweden we reworked some to have a frontwheel, to learn the pilots to start and land the SAAB 21.

I know a Japanese A6M when I see one! Or... wait, is it a D3A? Or it might be a B5N, depending on the paint job. 🤣 But seriously, Texans also had a long postwar career in Hollywood pretending to be Japanese navy aircraft (which obviously weren't available to filmmakers). Also, I think perhaps it might be impossible to OVERstate the contribution of this aircraft. It's certainly possible, even easy, to UNDERstate it, it's just rude to do so.

I love the T6. It is my favorite WWII aircraft second only to the Stearman (built in my hometown).

My uncle Richard trained at Pensacola in the Navy version SNJ then spent the next 4 years flying TBF's and later transitioned into Corsairs as they ran out of targets for the TBF's where he was during the last few months of the war. He's still with us. He's 98.

Yet another fantastic video Bismarck.

I flew one of these at Warbird Adventures in Kissimmee , Florida . I loved it ! Great fun .

Great presentation Bismarck ! What a beauty 😍🥰

Liked to see the PRT Air Force Harvards mentioned. Great Video! Thanks!

Excellent segment, devoting well-deserved time to this important aircraft. As always, thank you for sharing. Steve

A couple of T-6's were used in Portugal on a coup attempt that took place on March 11th, 1975.

Watched 2 of these beauties doing formation flying over Newport RI today - Bismarck's timing with this video is fantastic

"relatively simple procedure" I guess that is a sentence that has a different meaning in german.

The Texan is probably best known today for standing in for Zeros in any number of movies.

Thank you for an interesting and informative video.

Brilliant presentation.

I've flown one of these! Easy to fly - I had no prior experience. What Chris failed to mention, but sharp-eyed observers will notice, is that the T6/SNJ doesn't have a cockpit floor. If you drop something during flight (map, pencil, camera, etc.), it goes right to the bottom of the fuselage, to be retrieved only once you're back on the ground.

Very nicely done!

A beautiful aircraft. I love the pre war color scheme. Markings of VF6.

My granddad was in the RCAF training as a wireless operator. He's told me so many great stories about his and fellow airmen's experiences with the Harvard II. I have a framed photo of him in the back seat of a Harvard during a training flight taken from another aircraft.

Here in Ontario, Canada, we have a flight of Harvards, 4 or 5, I recall. Beautiful close formation flying, various aerobatics, a wonderful sight to behold!

Bin mal in einer mit geflogen. Sehr rustikal, aber macht was sie soll.

Wonderful aircraft, and that sound as it passes by! Wow!

I have around 5-6 hours in a couple different variants of the Texan/Harvard. It's a wonderful airplane.

fantastic thanks

Loved this video!!! 1000 thanks for it!!! Wonderfull!! One of the icons of my childhoood when here over Portugal skies it could still be seen. We done lots and lots of missions with these aircrafts back in our colonial war, and even after. I remember seen them over me when I was a child. Images I'll never forget!! On portuguese pilots hands this air craft has done several different missions: from instruction, to reconnescaince, from reconnesceince to soil attack... A piece of world and portuguese history that I will never ever forget!! Again: 1000 thanks for this video!!

I did my first hour of flight time in one the thing was really responsive when monuvering

I love the detail in your videos yet they are not boring with insignificant minutiae.

I flew this aircraft for a few years. A real beauty!!! Regards from Switzerland

Ah, - The 'Harvard' Love it. A lot of the pilots memoirs I've read mention it had some vicious stall characteristics.

As an Aussie I've always loved this plane, mainly for being the basis for the CAC CA-1 Wirraway.

Thanks so much for these quality videos . If you can, a video about the American Catalina will be much appreciated . It was a beautiful aircraft

That plane is in really good shape!! My sole experience flying one was several years ago (I had no previous flight experience), and was far less traumatic than I anticipated. The real pilot did the hard parts (takeoff and landing) from the back seat. I didn't attempt any combat maneuvers, but control was pretty straightforward, though on a hot August afternoon, with thermals at work, the air was rougher than I expected. You had to pay attention to maintain level flight. The most disconcerting feature of the T-6 (to me) was that it had no floor. To operate the rudder pedals, your feet rest on what I guess would be called "rails." If you drop something, it usually falls to the bottom of the fuselage, and can't be retrieved until you're back on the ground.

The Texan was an Army Air Corps type , the same Aircraft AT-6 was designated SNJ by the U.S. NAVY

sadly I should be in Reno NV watching these bad boys race. It is amazing seeing them wing tip to wing tip racing. But because of the Beer virus no races this year.

He speaks better english than most people I know

awesome videos dude! Can you do a video on the clothing and gear the pilots used in different countries and over the course of aviation history. thanks!

Just love your channel in fact can't get enough your attention to detail is brilliant any chance you could one day look at maratime sea planes from ww1 to ww2 👍👍👍

I’m from Texas so this is cool also I love the black and white fuselage beautiful

Got to work on a few of these!

That's a beautiful airplane. I grew up around an army airbase used to train Dutch fliers from the Netherlands East Indies (Java, Sumatra) and there were derelicts that were left at an adjunct airfield near my house after the war. We spent hours in those greenhouse canopies swinging the rudder and moving the ailerons up and down. Fun days.

At my flying club we get fly by’s and stunts from a t-6 all the time Super amazing plane

Thanks chris excellent exposition as usual . There is a Harvard in our area (Dunkeswell) , doing the self same job you described, training pilots to fly ww2 warbirds. Can be seen but is heard more often due to that foghorn of an exhaust note.

Very popular stand-in for other aircraft.

It is interesting how many controls there are on an AT-6 that are also on the latest WWII Allied fighters. I can see how a few hours in this ship would make flying more powerful planes second nature to you.

The inside looks efficient.

Great to see the unsung heroes.

Great episode! By the way you mention that various weapons could be attached. When did "hard points" develop? WWI? 1920? And how have they evolved?

I had the pleasure of looking (and sitting) inside the cockpit of a Noorduyn Harvard Mk IIB and it had a stick that looked a lot like the "Spade" stick on the Spitfire and Hurricane. Did the other Harvards have this as well, or was it exclusive to the IIB?

I've taken a passenger ride in a SNJ 4, and got some stick the in an AT6 G. It's a blast. The world looks different from the top of a loop. 😁

I will never be able to not say "cananopy" from now on

They also used some of these planes in the making of the Movie "A Bridge to far". They covered the Rest part of the canape and used them as Fighter Bombers.

My cousins Air Training Corps [NZ] instructor took him up for a loop, and roll in a Harvard [Tean] in the 1960s. He was at high school in Ashburton, New Zealand.

My favorite plane

The AT6 was built under license in Australia. It was also used as the basis for the CAC Boomerang. The wings, engine installation, landing gear and tail attached to a new fuselage.

I flew am AT-6 Harvard/Texan, as did 3 of my kids in Kissimmee in the 90s , very easy to maneuver and responsive and as you say stable, good semi aerobatics as you say. Flew rolls and a 360 degree loop, Fantastic sound ! Yea I guess I could have flown it with training, great training aircraft. Good video. Had basic flight training, some classes, flew gypsy moth etc... part time pilot but unfortunately could not continue as my other career got I the way ~!! PS You sound like Bismark ?

It would be interesting to do a series called obsolete aircraft that overachieved: my recommendations: PO-2 biplane, fairey swordfish, Brewster buffalo, Curtis p-36. For the buffalo and p-36 they racked up a surprising amount of kills for Finland and France respectively that I was surprised to learn.

The U.S. Air Force respected the AT-6 so much it has given the "Texan" name to it's new* propeller trainer, the Beechcraft T-6 Texan II. They fly over my house regularly from Randolph Air Force Base where air crew training has been going on since the base was built in the 1930's. (*new being relative since it been in service a couple of decades now)

Australia developed this into the wirraway and then the boomerang , great aircraft

I'm considering doing a series similar to this one, but with locomotives.

Nice review of the AT-6. However, there was another similar trainer which saw service in parallel with the AT-6 during and after WWII, the Vultee BT-13/BT15, better known as the "Vultee Vibrator". It also had an impact on training allied flyers who were thankful to transition to the AT-6.

If I was going to train & had a choice it'd be this aircraft!

I remember watching Kelly's Heroes and seeing one of these do the strafing run on Kelly and the others when they are on top of the hill behind German line.

Muy joven tuve la fortuna de volar en un AT6, hoy en mi tercera edad añoro ese dia, si alguna vez puedo, seguro volare por segunda y ultima vez en mi vida

There was a Harvard (Canada) that got picked up by the flying club where I was taking lessons as a kid. It literally had saw marks right behind the rear cockpit where someone had begun cutting the fuselage in half. Luckily the destruction was halted and the plane was saved.

Fist model plane I ever built was the TG6 Tex.

That starting procedure was less simple than I expected ^^“ Stealing a plane seems quite hard, no wonder I heard that planes often aren’t locked

Oh i have strong opinions on this aircraft. The school at which i was educated for 10 years was underneath the airspace used by the airforce's main pilot training facility. All my school lessons were regularly interrupted by the deafening sound of the two bladed prop of the Texan with its supersonic propellor tips. I will never understand why it was better to deafen everybody in west Christchurch than get quieter propellors.

This plane has the markings of Fighting Squadron 3, aka the “Felix the Cat” squadron.

The T-6 is so legendary that the USAF's current primary trainer shares the T-6 designation and is called the Texan II.

When I saw T-6 Texan for the first time, I thought it was SBD Dauntless lol.

Great video about a plane that taught allied pilots how to fly the great warbirds. Would love a video about the trainer(s) that taught German pilots how to fly great Luftwaffe warbirds.

What happens if i convert AT-6 it into SBD Dauntless dive bomber.

Does it fly? You have picked a beautiful restoration to feature even if the paint scheme is a bit screwy. This plane would be a dream to joy ride.

If you were in Midland Texas filming this and I didn't get to shake your hand I will be super salty, LOL. I've only watched the intro so far.

Royal New Zealand Air Force used the Harvard Mklll(stand AT6D) for flight training from 1943 to 1977 ,interesting that some of the R.N.Z.A.F MKlll after WWII were converted from MK 11, 11A., 11B'S ,they arrived around 1942, out of the 19 Mk111 retired in 1977 most had started life as MKll,A or B.

The "G" was never designated the AT-6G but is properly referred to as the "T-6G" -- drop the superfluous "A!". The reason is the "G" was developed for and named by the United States Air Force post-1947, and all T-6Gs were of that new era. With the prior WWII era AT-6D and AT-6C, they were denominated by the United States Army, and their Air Corps ["USAAC"]. Those airplane include the "A" for Advanced; the USAF said "all of our trainers are advanced.

So i have a challenge for you. Spitfire Mk VB (EN830) I recently learned about the case of this..messerspit and it was bloody interesting, but there's so very little information about it. Do you have any info what what the tests results revealed about that aircraft vs the g6s it was tested against?

How you made clear the importance of this trainer aircraft was a real eye opener to me. You make me curious about the training program. How long does it take to train a pilot on this machine? Did students learn to fly or did they even learn to fight in this machine, with manoevers and tactics et cetera? When they left this part of the training, were they trained on the real warplanes? What did that look like?

How about a video about the unsung hero sea plane of WWII? The Catalina.

T6 Texan was heavily used in Hollywood , for example playing German fighters on a airfield in the movie where eagles dare , p47 thunderbolts in a bridge too far , and heavily modified to represent Japanese fighters ,bombers and torpedo bombers in toro,toro,toro and the pearl harbour movie

I remember reading about this plane being the only fighter craft used by the Laotian government in their civil war, of course they lost and some of the pilots of the few Texans they had defected to North Vietnam

In the movie: a bridge too far" they used the texan, because they did not have me109 or fw190...

Fun fact: The t6 saw service in the french army as a ground attack plane. In saw combat in the algerian civil war.

The more I think about it...the at6 is the grandfather of the dauntless dive bomber. Similar in looks

Texan just looks like it wants someone to strap some armaments to it...

You sounded like someone who've had a couple of beer in this vid.