The very First T-6 Texan (NA-16 Prototype X-2080)

There are a handful of aircraft constructions, which can be described as groundbreaking and which have been in service for decades. And partly still do it today. In my eyes, this includes, for example, the DC-3 by Douglas, the Seaking by Sikorsky and the T-6 Texan by North American. It is hard to believe that the first flight of the T-6 prototype took place exactly 90 years ago. It was NA-16 with registration number X-2080.

Many, many decades ago, Sierra Scale Models released a conversion kit in (Vacu), with which you can build a BC-1 by using of parts from the monogram kit. A BC-1 already has the retractable landing gear of the T-6, but still the fabric covered fuselage as well as the early wing with a straight rear edge.

Yesterday I cleaned up a bit in the basement and discovered this project that had been abandoned for a long time.

This is the very first project in which I wanted to recreate the rivets. It was in the year 2000 and there was no rivet wheel on the market, so I built my rivet wheel myself from a watch gear wheel. At that time I had no experience with it and so the rivets had lines and not dots 🙁 I was not satisfied with the result and abandoned the project. The very first properly riveted model with the revised rivet wheel was the Boeing P-26, which I built in late 2000 🙂

It took me 1 hour yesterday to understand what I was up to at the time. I left the area on the underside of the wing closed, which needs to be opened for the wheels. Obviously I wanted to build a BT-9, the predecessor of the BC-1 with a fixed landing gear. That's why yesterday the idea came to take another step back and build the first prototype on this basis.