PT-26 CORNELL

The Fairchild PT-26 was a light American training and training aircraft from the interwar period and World War II in the low wing design with a fixed landing gear in the classic arrangement. The length of the machine was about 8.3 meters with a wingspan of 10.97 meters. The drive was provided by a single Ranger L-440-3 or L-440-7 engine with a capacity of 200 HP. The PT-26 was designed and built by Fairchild Aircraft. The genesis of this machine is closely related to the pursuit of the American Air Force (at that time: USAAC, and from 1941 - USAAF) to obtain a new training machine for its pilots, which could be used in the first stage of training (Primary Flying Training) . The PT-26 aircraft was, in essence, a modified version of the PT-19 aircraft, and compared to its predecessor, it was primarily characterized by a different power unit, a reinforced fuselage structure and marginal differences in the design of the nose of the machine. It is worth adding that while the PT-19 was produced primarily for the USAAF, the PT-26 was primarily produced for the Canadian Air Force in the following versions: PT-26, PT-26A and PT-26B. In Canadian aviation they were called Cornell I, II and III.