Consolidated PT-3

The Consolidated PT-3, company Model 2, was a training airplane used by the United States Army Air Corps as the PT-3 and by the United States Navy as the NY-1. After the success of the Navy NY-1 modification of a PT-1 airframe, the Air Corps concluded that a radial engine was ideal for a trainer, being reliable with a good power-to-weight ratio, and one PT-1 was completed as the XPT-2 with a 220 hp Wright J-5 Whirlwind. The XPT-3 added a revised tail and wing panels, and 130 production PT-3 aircraft were ordered in September 1927, one of them completed as the XO-17, followed by 120 PT-3A aircraft with minor changes. The PT-3 was superseded by the Boeing PT-13 Stearman from 1937, but some were still operating at the Spartan Flying School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, into the middle of World War II.