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United States' Vultee Valiant trainer¹

Vultee Valiant

Design

The Vultee Valiant started out as a private venture, the Vultee Model 54, and was tested by the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). in 1938.¹ The Vultee Model 54 had a Wright R-1340 (600 HP) engine and retractable landing gear.¹ This was considered to powerful and complicated for basic training.¹ Vultee redesigned the plane to have fixed landing gear and a less powerful engine.¹

Engines

Pratt & Whitney couldn't keep up with production of their R-985 Wasp engines so Wright produced around 1,700 R-975 Cyclones that were fitted in the BT-15.¹

Prototype

Production

In September 1939 the USAAC ordered 300 Valiants.¹ In 1941 a followup order of 2,000 was placed.¹

In August 1940 the United States Navy ordered Valiants.¹

BT-13: 300¹
BT-13A: 6,407¹
BT-13B: 1,125¹
BT-15: 1,693¹
SNV-1: 1,350¹
SNV-2: 650¹
Total: 11,525¹
XBT-16: 1¹

Variants

BT-13: Initial production model.¹
BT-13A: Main production model.¹
BT-13B: Had 24 volt electrical system.¹
BT-15: Wright R-975 Cyclone engine.¹
SNV-1: United States Navy version of the BT-13A.¹
SNV-2: United States Navy version of the BT-13B.¹
XBT-16: Vidal rebuilt a BT-13 with a plastic fuselage.¹ Experimental only.¹

Usage

The Vultee Valiant was used by the United States.¹

	Vultee Valiant¹	Vultee Valiant BT-13A¹	Vultee Valiant BT-15¹	Vultee Valiant SNV¹
Type	Trainer¹
Crew	2¹
Engine (Type)		Pratt & Whitney R-985-AN-1 Wasp Junior¹	Wright R-975-11 Whirlwind¹	Pratt & Whitney R-985-AN-1 Wasp Junior¹
Cylinders		Radial 9¹	Radial 9¹	Radial 9¹
Cooling
HP		450¹	450¹	450¹
Propeller blades		2¹	2¹	2¹
Dimensions
Span	42'¹ 12.8 m¹
Length	28' 10"¹ 8.79 m¹
Height	11' 6"¹ 3.5 m¹
Wing area
Weight
Empty		3,375 lb¹ 1,531 kg¹
Loaded		4,496 lb¹ 2,039 kg¹		4,360 lb¹ 1,978 kg¹
Performance
Speed		180 mph¹ 290 kph¹
Cruising speed
Climb to 10,000' / 3,048 m		9.2 minutes¹
Service ceiling		21,650'¹ 6,600 m¹
Range		725 miles¹ 1,167 km¹
Armament

Sources:

Aircraft of WWII, Stewart Wilson, 1998