The Vultee BT-13 (USAAF)/SNV (Naval) family of basic trainers for military student pilots entered service in 1940. Training for new pilots consisted of four 10-week phases. The first phase of training was conducted in the classroom with the second through the fourth conducted in the air with aircraft of increasingly challenging parameters.
Primary training was conducted in the Stearman (Boeing) PT-17, powered by the Continental R-670 210 hp radial engine or the Fairchild PT-19 powered by the 200 hp Ranger L-440-3 engine.
The Vultee BT-13 was the principal vehicle used for the Basic Training phase, as powered by the 450 hp Pratt & Whitney R-985-AN-1 nine-cylinder radial, single-row, air- cooled engine.
The Advanced Training phase training was conducted in the North American AT-6 “Texan” (or “Harvard”) with the Pratt & Whitney R-1340-AN-1 Wasp radial engine generating 600 hp.
Our BT-13A (USAAF Serial No. 41-10418) was manufactured at the Vultee Aircraft plant in Nashville Tennessee on Nov 29, 1941 (manufacturing #2735). This aircraft manufacturing facility was originally owned by the Stinson Aircraft Company which merged with Vultee Aircraft, Inc. of California in 1940.
At the beginning of December 1941, BT-13A (41-10418) was received by the USAAF at Gunter Field, Montgomery, Alabama and assigned on Dec 18th to Gunter AAF (8th Basic Flying Training Group, AAF Eastern Flying Training Command).
In October 1942, our Vultee was reassigned to the AAF (6th Basic Flying Training Group, Army Air Forces Eastern Flying Training Command) in Greenville, Mississippi. It was used as a primary trainer at that base for student military pilots until January 1945 when it was moved to the 4007th AAF Base Unit (Mobile Air Technical Service Center) at Brookley Field in Mobile, Alabama. From there it served briefly with the 2156th AAF Base Unit (ATSC) in Decatur, Alabama from March until July 1945 when it was dropped from the USAAF inventory as surplus, just as the war in Europe had ended and the war in the Pacific was winding down. Surplus inventory from the USAAF was sold to the public through the auspices of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, Washington, DC.
On December 31, 1945, it was purchased by H. L. Galstar, from Chicago, IL for $690 and resold, almost immediately (in January 1946) to J. M. Edelman of Baton Rouge, LA and permitted for instrument night flying. Edelman thereafter sold the aircraft for $700 in Feb 1948 to Davis Aerial Photographic Services, Houma, LA and permitted for vertical photography.
After 18 years of use in aerial photography, the plane was purchased by two pilots (J. C. Vest & A.F. Hopson) for $1,500 in February 1966 and moved the Vultee to Houma, LA. In July of that year, it must have been involved in some aviation incident as the aircraft registration was cancelled at request of the owners with the rationale: ‘aircraft scrapped’.
In 1970 R. D. Garnett of Marion, TX purchased the plane, restoring it to flying condition. In January 1971, the new owner applied for and was granted a reinstatement of the BT-13’s registration. Mr. Garnett kept the plane for over 20 years before selling it to C. W. Kirchner Jr. of Ocala, FL, in May 1993. In between Mr. Kirchner and its final private placing, the Vultee was purchased by its then mechanic, J. E. Kaylor also of Ocala, FL. Finally in November 1997 the BT-13A was purchased by Mr. Gerry O. Sibley and registered in Rockford IL.
Gerry Sibley was born in McPherson, KS on Aug 26, 1937. He received his bachelor's degree and several master's degrees from Wichita State University, University of Kansas, The von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, and Thunderbird Graduate School. He spent 28 months in Vietnam as a civilian advisor to the U.S. Army. Gerry's hobbies included flying, gliding, and aircraft restoration. He was recognized as a recipient of the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award and the FAI Diamond Badge for Soaring. Gerry was a member of the EAA, Academy of Model Aeronautics, Soaring Society of America, and AOPA. He actively volunteered his time with B-29 "Doc" in Wichita, KS prior to his death.
When Mr. Sibley passed on March 6, 2021, it was discovered that he had willed his aircraft to the Combat Air Museum. Gerry had been a regular member of the Museum since 1997. The BT-13A was flown to this Museum on June 15, 2021, by Tim Wiebe (Wichita pilot of the B-29 “Doc”) from an airfield in Rockford, Illinois.
