Air Force Museum
Vultee BT-13B Valiant
The Valiant was the basic trainer most widely used by the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II. It represented the second of the three stages of pilot training -- primary, basic and advanced. Compared with the primary trainers in use at the time, it was considerably more complex. The BT-13 not only had a more powerful engine, it was also faster and heavier.
In depth
History & service
In addition, it required the student pilot to use two-way radio communications with the ground and to operate landing flaps and a two-position variable pitch propeller.
Nicknamed the "Vibrator" by the pilots who flew it, the BT-13 was powered by a 450-hp Pratt & Whitney R-985 engine. Because of a shortage of these engines, however, 1,693 Valiants flew with Wright R-975 engines, thereby becoming BT-15s. By the end of WWII, 10,375 BT-13s and BT-15s had been accepted by the USAAF.
The BT-13B on display, one of 1,775 Bs built, was acquired from Raymond Brandly of West Carrollton, Ohio, in 1965.
The aircraft in figures
Engine: Pratt & Whitney R-985 of 450 hp · Maximum speed: 155 mph · Cruising speed: 130 mph · Range: 880 miles · Ceiling: 19,400 ft. · Span: 42 ft. 2 in. · Length: 28 ft. 8 1/2 in. · Height: 12 ft. 4 3/4 in. · Weight: 4,227 lbs. loaded · Serial number: 42-90629
Aircraft change the battlefield
In the First World War, aircraft became valuable because they could see beyond the front line. Reconnaissance and artillery observation affected decisions on the ground. Once that information mattered, opposing forces had reason to attack the aircraft gathering it. Fighters, defensive armament, and increasingly specialized missions developed around this contest over observation and freedom of movement.
The aircraft were fragile by later standards, but their crews worked inside a rapidly expanding military system. Training, maintenance, replacement aircraft, photography, communications, and weather reporting supported each sortie. Improvements in engines and armament changed tactics, while the pressures of combat exposed weaknesses that might have taken much longer to discover in peacetime.
Personal stories should be read alongside those systems. A uniform or a named aircraft connects the war to an individual, but the individual depended on many others and operated under constraints that skill could not eliminate. Aircraft from opposing sides show how designers answered similar problems in different ways. The later military collections in Dayton and at Udvar-Hazy reveal what endured: the need to gather information, protect friendly forces, move people and supplies, and coordinate action across distance. The scale changed enormously; the relationship between an aircraft's design and the job it had to perform remained fundamental.
