Hiya guys!
Been really busy and missed this.
I see Stalker helped me out, Hang. #33 is mine, and #50 in the formation shot was my brother's. He sold that one but the fellow that rebuilt mine in '89 just finished another one for my brother.
My Father has a PT-26 in Canadian colors. You could go that way; the Canadians had more '26's than any other nation. I think it had something to do with
winter up there.
I'll look around and find some pics of his to scan.
Rip, feel free to post... they're your pics after all. Say hi to "G" for me. Was a fun day, I enjoyed it. See you in DFW.
The change to silver happened when it became obvious that they needed to build a lot of trainers real fast, ie: the war started.
The blue and yellow are just "finish" coats of colored dope. Under those color coats, the fabric was doped with many.. I think it was 7 or so... coats of aluminized dope which made the fabric stiffer and more durable with respect to weathering or deterioration.
The aluminized dope was silver in color. When the war got rolling they just decided to skip the "finish" coat since it didn't really add anything to longevity; it was simply "looks".
IIRC, the Army specs only called for a trainer aircraft to last 5 years in Army usage. They left them parked outside with open cockpits in all weather. They all lasted well into the '50's before the major airframe overhauls became necessary. And of course, there's something like 200 of the almost 13,000 built still on the registry nearly 60 years later.
Not bad for a "5 year" airplane.
