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enter image description here

Can anyone help identify this aircraft? The photo was taken in 1935 in Salinas, California. I realize it was taken from a great distance, and the resolution is poor.

With my inexpert eye, I immediately thought PT-19, but that didn’t fly until 1940. On closer inspection, the dual cockpits look like they might be farther back than in the PT-19, but otherwise the form is quite similar.

An unrelated great uncle (relationships are complicated) managed the airport in Salinas and was a flight instructor until WW2. As a child, my mother flew in an open, dual-cockpit trainer with her sorta-uncle at the stick in 1934 or 1935. There’s a very small chance that this is the same aircraft, but in any case I’d be very interested to learn what it is.

Thanks very much.

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  • $\begingroup$ "An unrelated great uncle" - Sorry, but what? $\endgroup$
    – MikeB
    Commented Sep 30 at 10:32
  • $\begingroup$ @MikeB it's semi common for close family friends to be called Aunt/Uncle, I don't see why this couldn't be extended to great uncle for someone older. Although I don't know why OP bothered to mention they were unrelated. $\endgroup$
    – Sam Dean
    Commented Sep 30 at 12:52
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    $\begingroup$ Part of the low quality of your scan is probably the jpeg algorithm's compression. It doesn't always handle black and white nicely. If you rescan the original set for greyscale and either an uncompressed format or with the jpeg settings at least set to maximum quality that might help quite a bit. $\endgroup$
    – Perkins
    Commented Sep 30 at 19:10
  • $\begingroup$ @Perkins indeed if I had the original photo I’d have created the best scan I could, and I’d have saved without compression. I’m well aware of compression artifacts. Alas this is a crop of an online image at link. $\endgroup$
    – Bola
    Commented Oct 1 at 1:42

1 Answer 1

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Based on the planform revealed by the shadow, I'd go with an ancestor of the T6 Texan that first flew in 1935, the North American BT-9.

1 enter image description here

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    $\begingroup$ The picture of BT-14 on the linked Wikipedia page looks identical to OP, down to color scheme $\endgroup$
    – ojs
    Commented Sep 30 at 11:10
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    $\begingroup$ @JohnK to me these photos look like the wings have some sweep, similar to the original photo: commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:North_American_BT-14 $\endgroup$
    – ojs
    Commented Sep 30 at 15:48
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    $\begingroup$ The Texan did not exist before December 1940 when the USAAC ordered 400 AT-6Bs. These aircraft were built at NA's Dallas TX facility. The Dallas facility was initiated because orders for these aircraft exceeded the manufacturing/assembly capacity of NA's Englewood CA facility. The aircraft shown in the photo, above, is documented as US Navy NJ-1 Bu. No 0922 delivered 31Dec1937 & photo'd in flight late Jan 1938. $\endgroup$
    – Thomas Perry
    Commented Sep 30 at 16:54
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    $\begingroup$ @MikeB To my eye it looks like the digital compression algorithm of the original photo has blurred the trailing edge of the tail into the landscape. It might be rounded, or it might not. A fresh scan of the original image into an uncompressed format might help. $\endgroup$
    – Perkins
    Commented Sep 30 at 19:08
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    $\begingroup$ @JohnK I see why you suggest it could be a BT-9. The sweep of the leading edge of the wing and the general planform are definitely close. If indeed the photo is from 1935, that seems to me to be quite early for a BT-9 to be at a civilian airfield in California. $\endgroup$
    – Bola
    Commented Oct 1 at 1:32

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