1943 NORTH AMERICAN American T-6D Texan SOLD

Boschung Global is offering an immaculate T-6 Texan which has come out of a recent ground up restoration by the expert team at the workshops of Rare Bird Aviation, Hungary. One of the most versatile & prolific aeroplanes built, the T-6 was given the name Texan by the US Army Air Corps, SNJ by the US Navy & Harvard by the British. The first prototype was flown in 1935, as an entry into the US Army Air Corps Basic Trainer competition, the requirement being an advanced air crew trainer. Such was the success of the design that it remained in active service as late as 1996, with the South African Air Force. During its service life the T-6 not only trained thousands of pilots, it was also employed as a combat aircraft in the post war years with several air forces, including those of Israel, France, Greece, Spain, Portugal & the UK. It was operated as a fighter bomber & a ground attack aircraft, often in the counter insurgency role. In the Korean War & the early years of the Vietnam War the USA used the T-6 as a forward air control aircraft. The reliability of the Pratt & Whitney R-1340 engine & the structural strength of the aircraft meant it could be counted on to get the job done until more specialized aircraft were available. This particular aircraft was built as a SNJ (US Navy) trainer & following retirement found its way into the civil aviation sector being registered as N7804B in 1958. Four years later the aircraft was taken on strength with the Spanish Air Force as C.6-162 serving through to 1979 prior to be auctioned & sold to Hans Dittes of Heidelberg, Germany, in 1981. The aircraft stayed in Europe despite being sold to a US buyer in 1987, being operated by Plane Fun Inc, Grossostheim, Germany from 1992 through to 1996 & thereafter by well known Bf 109 pilot Walter Eichhorn for Red Bull Aviation. Registered D-FHGL, the aircraft was repainted into a Red Bull scheme & flew with the father & son Harvard display team. In 2019 the aircraft was purchased by an Austrian investor & sent to Rare Bird Aviation where it was completely stripped down & rebuilt to ‘as new’ standard. This included overhaul of components &, where required, repairs to the fuselage, wings, empennage & undercarriage – the latter seeing new bearings, tubes, tyres & Red Line Corporation hydraulic brakes. In addition, state of the art communication equipment has been installed in the already well appointed cockpit. Flight control surfaces were recovered with new fabric, the aircraft primed & then painted in a US Navy colour scheme. The overhauled R-1340 & Hamilton Standard prop were fitted & test run, with all systems checked prior to the aircraft being cleared to fly.