Beechcraft AT-10 Wichita
The Beechcraft AT-10 Wichita was a twin-engined advanced trainer built by Beech Aircraft Corporation at Wichita, Kansas, primarily from wood, so that aluminium could be spared for combat aircraft. First flown in 1941, it trained United States Army Air Forces pilots making the transition from single-engined trainers to multi-engined fighters, transports and bombers. Beech built 1,771 in 1942–43 and Globe Aircraft a further 600 in 1944, 2,371 in all. The plywood structure weathered badly, and after the war most were scrapped or stripped for their engines; one intact example survives at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, and one is being restored to fly.
Why It Mattered
The Wichita existed because of a wartime fear: that aluminium suitable for airframes would become scarce as the war progressed. Beech answered with a small twin-engined trainer built primarily from wood. AirCorps Aviation's Chuck Cravens calls it an important step in the development of twin-engined fighter and two- and four-engined bomber crews. The National Museum of the United States Air Force, quoted by Vintage Aviation News, records that over half of the Army Air Force's pilots received their transitional training from single- to multi-engine aircraft in AT-10s. The museum also judged it the best-performing twin-engined trainer of its type.
Design Notes
The AT-10 was a small, twin-engined trainer with retractable landing gear, meant to develop pilot skills in multi-engined types. Aluminium appeared only in the forward fuselage and engine nacelles; most of the airframe — the fuel tanks included — was plywood. Plywood was a non-strategic material whose lightness, Vintage Aviation News notes, contributed greatly to the AT-10's performance. Power came from two Lycoming R-680-9 radial engines of 295 horsepower each. Wood was also the type's weakness: plywood does not fare well for long periods outdoors.
Operational History
Beech began work on the Model 25 in early 1940, answering an Army Air Corps requirement for a small twin-engined trainer. The Model 25 prototype was destroyed in a crash on 5 May 1941 while under evaluation, and Beech began work on the Model 26 the following day. The Model 26 made its first flight on 19 July 1941. Deliveries to the USAAF began in February 1942 under the designation AT-10, and 748 had been delivered by the end of 1942. Beech completed 1,771 AT-10s before its production ended in 1943. Globe Aircraft then built another 600 at Fort Worth, Texas, in 1944, bringing production to 2,371 in all. In service the Wichita prepared pilots for twin-engined fighters and for two- and four-engined bombers, as the step between light single-engined trainers and heavy, high-performance twins.
Afterlife
The AT-10 had little to offer civil operators: its useful load was limited and its operating costs fairly high. In 1946 the War Assets Administration put 1,930 of them up for sale, some 80 percent of all those built. Many were bought simply for their engines, which suited the crop-dusting Stearmans then in demand, and the rest of the wooden airframe was left to rot away. Aircraft left outdoors succumbed to the elements, and only a handful ever reached the civil registry. One intact Wichita remains: it is on static display in Dayton, Ohio, at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, and no AT-10 flies today. One more is under restoration for the Cadet Air Corps Museum in Kansas City, Missouri; when it is finished it will become, Vintage Aviation News reports, the only flying example of an AT-10 in the world.