The Curtiss-Wright AT-9 was a twin-engined advanced trainer aircraft used by the United States during World War II to bridge the gap between single-engined trainers and twin-engined combat aircraft. It became known as the ""Jeep"" in the United States Army Air Force (USAAF). This book by the senior curator with the Museum of Flight at Boeing Field in Seattle examines the genesis of the AT-9 design, its competitors and, eventually, comrades-in-arms, with whom AT-9s were always the best and the brightest, and a detailed look at the fielding of the aircraft to the 24 initial stations as well as an astonishing number of unusual and special assignments - including assignment to line, tactical units. After producing 791 aircraft between September 1941 and January 31, 1943, and assigning every single one of them, and having served actively and continuously through to VJ-Day, only one complete AT-9 survives today, and this solitary example is actually a composite of several aircraft.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
(Missing in the book)

This book unquestionably owes its realization to the encouragement and life-long USAAF Air Training Command station research amassed by Ken Crist, which he very generously donated to The Museum of Flight archival collection several years ago. His painstaking and nearly life-long devotion to this seemingly prosaic but in fact fascinating and vital subject unquestionably helped shape my understanding of the ebb-and-flow and life-cycle of the twin-engine, advanced training establishment.

   Four life-long friends and fellow aero-historians must join with Ken Crist in pride-of-place in support of this nearly consuming project: Alan Griffith, Dana Bell, David W. (“Dave”) Ostrowski, and Dr. George Cully each contributed from their own research and holdings and, in a process which has come to characterize the aviation history fraternity, brought those many “Aha!” moments that every historian recognizes as the very stuff that holds it all together. Of these, Alan in particular was generous in sharing a vast bounty of data and photos relating to the AT-9 that would have required enormous exertions to locate otherwise, and my appreciation to him is inadequate.

   David Schwartz of the Archives Division, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, made a week devoted to the invaluable Curtiss-Wright Corporate Collection time exceptionally well spent, as did Paul Silbermann of the same unit, who fielded requests for technical manuals and truly obscure minutiae with his legendary finesse and competence. The fact that the NASM Archives Team greeted this former colleague with groans of “Oh great, here’s Hagedorn researching yet another un-loved aircraft” merely sweetened the quest.

   Other repositories were equally generous with their holdings and assistance, and Brett Stolle, CA, Manuscript Curator at The National Museum of the United States Air Force once again endured my many urgent requests with accuracy, expediency and thoroughness.

   Life-long friend and researcher extraordinaire John M. Davis of Wichita proved once again to be an invaluable sounding board for the puzzling lack of representation on the U.S. Civil Aircraft Register of a truly astonishing number of AT-9s that survived the war to be sold surplus, almost a story unto itself.

   Mark Nankivil of St. Louis served as an invaluable guide through the tragic disappearance of the collective Curtiss-Wright St. Louis Airplane Division archival holdings, while sharing what he and his fellow-enthusiasts in the greater St. Louis area had managed to piece together on their own.

   The legendary Robert L. (Bob) Taylor of the Antique Airplane Association in Ottumwa provided first-hand recollections and several extremely rare photographs that helped our understanding of post-war use of AT-9s as training aids.

   Stan Piet of the Martin Museum contributed a mass of scans he had gleaned from the holdings of the National Archives at College Park, in the process saving this researcher at least a week of expensive travel and frustration, a number of which have enriched this narrative.

   Hayden Hamilton, editor of the Journal of the American Aviation Historical Society, provided scans of all of the AAHS holdings relating to the AT-9 and in the process confirmed my life-long respect for this national treasure, which is all-too-often overlooked by otherwise serious historians.

   A very special thanks to aviation artist and friend of long-standing, Ted Williams, who produced the 10, wonderful color side-views for this project, and who brought an incredible wealth of attention-to-detail to this long over-looked subject.

   And finally, to my long-suffering sweetheart Kathleen, who once again endured my frolicking with yet another unloved airplane.

  Dan Hagedorn

Maple Valley, Washington.  2017

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS