Summary The North American T-6 Texan was the best US fighter training aircraft of WWII, with a second career as a movie star. The Vultee BT-13 Valiant was a basic trainer for fighter pilots in WWII, known for its power and weight. The Cessna UC-78 Bamboo Bomber and Beechcraft AT-11 Kansan were used for multi-engine training in WWII.
As those of you dear readers who are my fellow fans of the late great Richard "Demo Dick" Marcinko (CDR, USN [Ret.]; November 21, 1940 – December 25, 2021), founding CO of US Navy SEAL Team 6 and Red Cell and author of the bestselling Rogue Warrior ® series of books (an autobiography, followed by a series of novels, as well as three non-fiction leadership guides), he codified his leadership philosophies in his 10 Commandments of SpecWar (Special Warfare) , one of which reads, in part: "[T]he more thou sweatest in training, the less thou bleedest in combat." Though CDR Marcinko served in the Vietnam War as opposed to WWII and though he certainly wasn't an aviator, combat aviation trainers and instructors for the US Army Air Forces (USAAF), US Navy (USN), and US Marine Corps (USMC) embodied Demo Dick's philosophy during the Second World War.
They ensured that through the sweat of training, America's fighter and bomber crews inflicted far more bleeding upon the Axis foes than they incurred in return. Simple Flying now looks at the Top 5 American training aircraft of WWII. 1 North American T-6 Texan (AKA AT-6/SNJ/Harvard) This plane eventually foun.