Fairchild Aeronca PT-19A Cornell United States Army Air Force Primary Trainer Aircraft

Video from the channel Official MAPS Air Museum Channel about Fairchild, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 3:43. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

This video from the MAPS museum presents the Fairchild PT-19, one of the primary trainers of the United States Army Air Forces in World War II, on which students took their first flights.

The prototype flew on 15 May 1939. After a competition against 17 other contenders, Fairchild received an initial order for 270 aircraft on 22 September 1939, and a total of 7,443 were built.

The example on display is a PT-19A built by Aeronca in Middletown, Ohio, serial number 43-31365. It served with training units in Alabama and Mississippi, passed through six owners in Ohio, and was donated to the museum in 2002. Its restoration was complicated by its wood, fabric, and steel-tube structure, and was completed in 2014.