Matterhorn Circle

AT-16 Harvard / Texan

After WWII in 1948, Switzerland purchased forty surplus Canadian build AT-16 Harvard IIBs. Before introduction as advanced trainers during 1949, these aircraft were totally overhauled by Fokker and Aviolanda. The 'new' aircraft's primary rôle was to introduce new pilots to instrument flying training. For this purpose, the rear part of the cockpit could be completely covered. The Harvard served in this capacity for twenty years until fatigue and a lack of spare parts saw them being replaced by the indigenous Pilatus P-3.

Of the 40 aircraft taken into service, 5 were lost during twenty years of service, one due to the collapse of a hangar. At the end of their service life, four aircraft were sold to Austria and one to Great Britain. The remaining AT-16's were scrapped and the engines sold to the US. On June 4th 1958, U-328's oxygen bottle exploded and destroyed the rear fuselage. This aircraft survived the scrap yard and was subsequently rebuilt for display. Today, U-328 is exhibited in the Air Force Museum at Dübendorf.

Initially, the AT-16s were not painted and wore Swiss crosses (72cm) in wide red bands (120cm) on both top and bottom of the wings. The rudder was to be painted red and a smaller white cross (36cm) displayed in the middle. This requirement dates March 1948. However, it escapes my knowledge if this scheme was ever actually applied. The natural metal finish remained; the Harvards received standard national insignias (Ø90cm / 50cm). All maintenance stencils and warnings were applied in French and German text.

With the exception of two aircraft, there were very little visible external differences throughout the AT-16 fleet, which were serialled in the U-301 to U-340 range. The last two digits were repeated on the cowling. In 1950, two Harvards were marked with large white numbers (23 & 34) on a black background. These did not reflect the serial numbers, rather their race numbers at the international air races in Arcachon, France.

For the military exercise 'Gotthard' between September 12 - 14th, 1966, two AT-16's were liveried in a temporary orange (RAL 2005) paint scheme with removable paint. The registration, national insignia, canopy and anti-glare panel were simply masked off and the rest of the aircraft, including all stencilling, painted over. Again, only one registration is known (U-317) and it is believed that only this aircraft received the 'Feindmarkierung' (Aggressor).

Academy has released a very nice Texan in 1/72 scale. In quarter scale, the Occidental kit has been re-released by Italeri. Please note, that the Swiss AT-16 did not have a spinner and the gear doors were removed. Also, the exhaust is a specialty of Swiss Harvards and must therefore be scratch built.

Upon delivery, the airframes were evenly polished but lost their shine rapidly. Different panels had varying shades of natural metal. The control surfaces were painted silver and the anti-glare panel was silk black as protection against the sun's reflection. The inside of the cockpit was mainly silver with some grey details. The instrument panels were black. The seat cushions were most commonly dark brown leather.

At this point, I would like to express my gratitude to the Swiss Air Force Museum in Dübendorf for the supply of data and information, which allowed me to create this decal sheet. Thanks also go to Bruno Schneider of IPMS St. Gallen who started this project.

Thanks to:
Swiss Air Force Museum Duebendorf - Herr Kaegi
Bruno Schneider - IPMS St. Gallen
Peter Lewis - www.goatworks.com