North American Texan/Harvard

North American Texan/Harvard Mks. I, IIB, III, AT.6F, T.6G, C.C.F IV

Under the 1941 Defence of India Plan, the need for air services became most urgent and, between March and December 1942, ten aircrew schools were opened to support the increasing size of the Allied Air Forces in India and particularly the expanding Indian Air Force. The No. I. Service Flying Training School at Ambala, established for inter-mediate and advanced flying and ground training for I.A.F. pilots, received a quantity of Harvard I & IIB two-seat basic trainers in 1942, pilots being given a minimum of 21 hours flying on the type, the total duration of the course being some 18 weeks. Additional marks of the Harvard, available under lend-lease during the war years, were forthcoming and individual aircraft also accompanied fighter squadrons to the Burma front as communication and utility aircraft.

Some 40 Harvards were allocated as the R.I.A.F.’s share in August 1947 and the trainer soon donned warpaint, a flight of Harvards being flown to Srinagar in October 1947, along with Tempests and Spitfires, to provide air reconnaissance for the slender Indian Army units battling tribal invaders in Kashmir. Harvards, escorted by Tempests, carried out visual and photo reconnaissance over hostile territory, directing counter fire with great effect particularly in the Poonch Sector. A Harvard, flown by Air Commodore Mehar Singh, acted as a pathfinder to Dakotas flying in vital supplies to Poonch airstrip in March 1948 and Harvards were used both for observation and communication, being the primary source of much information of strategic and tactical importance till the ceasefire in December 1948. In the Deccan, Harvards attached to Nos. 3 and 4 Tempests Squadrons, operated from Sholapur, Bellary and Gannavaram and ranged over the Hyderabad State force’s establishments including those at Naldrag and Jallot during September 1948. More than a decade later, two Harvards of No. 122 Flight were available for army co-operation and target direction duties during the Goa action in December 1961:

Primarily however, Harvards continued as the basic trainer at No. 2 Air Force Academy Jodhpur and Flying Instructors School Tambaram, first supplemented in October 1951 and then in 1956 by T-6G Texans acquired from the U.S.A., cadets being required to complete 75 flying hours on the type. The sharply increased requirements for training aircraft in the post-1962 period were alleviated by 36 CCF Harvard Mk. IVs received from Canada and additional Texans were purchased from surplus stocks elsewhere, the Harvard-Vampire training sequence continuing through the sixties although some fifty Mk. IIB, III and AT.6Fs were scrapped in August 1968. Harvards were on the strength of a number of Auxiliary Air Force squadrons, starting with No. 51 (Delhi) at Safdarjang airport and these took part in some R-Day flypasts and Air Force displays.

In December 1971, Harvards fitted with a .303 machine gun on the starboard wing and with a few rocket projectiles, operated on light attack tasks in the Jammu Sector, the full-throated roar of the aircraft serving as a deterrent to infiltrators.

Over thirty years after its introduction in the I.A.F., the Harvard continues to turn out basic qualified pilots as also serve as an inter-unit general utility aircraft. Cadet pilots at the Air Force Academy, Dundigal, are given 85 hours flying time on T-6G, of which 35 hours are ‘solo’.

Notes :

First produced in 1938 as the BC-1 basic combat trainer, the Texan (known as the Harvard to the R.A.F. and R.C.A.F.) became the most widely used military trainer in the world for nearly three decades. Redesignated AT-6, and again T-6 after the Second World War, a total of 13,594 Texans/Harvards were built in the U.S A., the production of 1500 Mk. IVs at the Canadian Car and Foundry Co. continuing till 1954. 3,354 aircraft were supplied to Allied nations under the lend-lease while thousands of war surplus aircraft were re-manufactured in 1949-50 as the T-6G Texan. Powered by a Pratt and Whitney R-1340-AN-1 radial of 550 h.p., the Harvard/Texan has been operated by close to fifty air arms.