Page 32 - Volume 10 Number 7

squadrons were usually based in the sunny southwestern United States where favorable flying weather prevailed year round. At the beginning of the war, training pilots, gunners and particularly bombardiers and navigators was a high priority in order to take the war to the Axis as soon as possible. After the war many AT-11s were converted to C-45G/C-45H configuration and soldiered on until the early 1960s before being retired from service.
Working together with the AT-11 was the AT-7, whose chief mission was to train navigators. Known unofficially as the Navigator, the AT-7’s cabin was equipped with
a small, rotating Plexiglas dome aft of the cockpit for celestial navigation, drift meters, work tables and various types of compasses. An auxiliary instrument panel that replicated those in the cockpit was installed to provide students with essential airspeed and altitude information necessary for making calculations.
Many thousands of navigators graduated from the AT-7 to the nose of Boeing B-17, Consolidated B-24, North American B-25 and other bombers during the war. A small number of AT-7s were modified into the AT-7A equipped with floats or snow skis. Initial deliveries
In addition to thousands of military trainers based on the Model 18, Beech Aircraft Corporation manufactured 1,771 Model 26 (AT-10) multi-engine trainers
that used wood as the primary construction material. In addition, the Globe Aircraft Corporation built 600 AT-10 trainers.
(EDWARD H. PHILLIPS COLLECTION)
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30 • KING AIR MAGAZINE JULY 2016