Texan nomenclature

[Bill Walker]

Can anybody supply the date on which the AT-6 was redesignated as T-6?

[lingodog]

An interesting question. I have a number of US Flight Manuals for the type.
Tech Order 01-60FC-1 dated August 1941 for AT-6, AT-6A, AT-6B & SNJ-3
Tech Order 01-60FE-1 dated April 1944 for AT-6C, AT-6D & SNJ-5
Air Training Command 51-60-1 dated March 1948 for 'AT-6'
Tech Order 1T-6F-1 (formerly 01-60FFC-1) dated January 1952 for T-6F & SNJ-6.
So on the scant information I have it was sometime between March 1948 and January 1952

[lingodog]

Instead of checking my collection of Flight Manuals and Pilots Notes I would have been more usefully engaged in consulting Putnams US Military Aircraft as that tells us the designation AT for Advanced Trainer was in use from 1924 to 1948!

[Bill Walker]

Thanks Lingodog.

[Stig Jarlevik]

Hi Bill

If I may venture a guess....
USAF was created in September 1947, so either the "bosses" had already worked out that they should refine the old USAAF designation system and wanted it to be started in fiscal year 1948 (which I think started on July 1st 1947?), OR they were late and made the decree for fiscal year 1949, which then should begin on July 1st 1948. If the manual quoted earlier is anything to go by, the July 1st 1948 date seems the better one.

It would make sense if you did start on a date like this, but of course nothing with dates like this is 100% certain unless you locate the specific order. Nothing in my books lists any specific date for this refinement, so again, purely a guess

Cheers
Stig