PT-1 Trusty: Consolidated's first flying classroom

When many people think of pre-1930 American trainer aircraft, the one plane which comes to mind is the Curtiss JN "Jenny", the most prolific land-based non-combat airplane of the US armed forces in World War I. However, during the 1920s, the Consolidated Aircraft company began its manufacturing business when it built the first trainer to bear a "PT" (Primary Trainer) designation, and that aircraft would become one of the earliest aircraft used to train airplane pilots in southern California.

A side view of a Consolidated PT-1 (serial number 25-245)

In 1923, after founding the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation in Buffalo, New York, aircraft designer Reuben Fleet (who had previously worked for the Gallaudet company) conceived a derivative of the Dayton-Wright TW-3 trainer (to which he had previously secured the design rights) with a slimmer fuselage and two crewmembers seating in tandem (in contrast to the side-by-side seating arrangement for the TW-3). When the US Army Air Service issued a requirement for a primary training aircraft, one TW-3 airframe (serial number 23-1253) was rebuilt by Consolidated with a slim fuselage and assigned the company designation Model 1. It first flew in the early summer of 1924, and after evaluation of the aircraft, the USAAS selected the Model 1 for production and 50 production aircraft (serial numbers 25-245/294) were ordered with the designation PT-1. Deliveries of the PT-1 to the USAAS began in the second half of 1924, and the PT-1 itself replaced the older TW-3 from which it was derived when first conceived. Follow-on orders for 170 more PT-1s (serial numbers 26-226/275, 26-301/350, 27-108/175 and 27-177) were placed in 1925-1926, and by the late 1920s a total of 220 production PT-1s were completed. Early production PT-1s utilized flat dorsal turtlenecks, but later production vehicles featured a faired dorsal turtleneck.

A Consolidated PT-1 biplane trainer (serial number 27-150) on display at the San Diego Air and Space Museum, photographed by me in October 2024.

As the first American trainer aircraft to be produced in huge quantity for the USAAS, the PT-1 was flown extensively by aviation cadets in Texas and California in the late 1920s and early 1930s, and it earned the nickname "Trusty" for its ability to quickly recover from a spin. Airmen found the PT-1 easy to fly, and the handling characteristics of the aircraft made some cadets so overconfident that they were shocked when advancing to faster aircraft with more difficult handling qualities. To prevent overheating of the Wright-Hispano V-720 V-cylinder engine, the PT-1 commonly had the engine cowlings removed. When the Wright-Hispano V-270 was in short supply, in 1927 one PT-1 (serial number 27-149) was modified with one Wright R-790 Whirlwind radial engine and designated XPT-2, having a wingspan of 34 ft 7 in (10.5 meters), a length of 28 ft 4 in (8.6 meters), and a gross weight of 2,427 lb (1,100 kg). Another PT-1 (serial number 27-177) would become the prototype of the PT-3 trainer with the Clark Y airfoil and a sub-rectangular vertical stabilizer. Beginning in 1928, the US Army Air Corps phased out the PT-1 as the PT-3 came into frontline training units, and several PT-1s continued to take part in the National Guard flying program until retired in the early 1930s. In the meantime, one PT-1 (serial number 27-176) was loaned to the Navy, and four more were delivered to Siam (now Thailand). 

In an interesting footnote, the PT-1 Trusty, in addition to being the first production aircraft built by Consolidated, became the first airplane to land at San Diego's newly inaugurated Lindbergh Field on August 16, 1928.