Dwelle Family's North American Harvard Mk. II "Tinkertoy"

The Dwelle family are the owners and operators of this 1940 North American Harvard Mk. II "Tinkertoy" (S/N 66-2703) which is available for airshows, flybys and film.

The North American Harvard (NA-26) appeared in late 1937, in response to a US Army Air Corps proposal for an advanced trainer. It immediately attracted orders from the USAAC, RAF, RCAF and other air forces. The first of 50 Harvard Mk. Is ordered by the Canadian Government were delivered to the RCAF at Sea Island, Vancouver in July 1939. By early 1940, the Mk II was on the assembly line in California with an all metal fuselage replacing the original tube and fabric structure. 1200 Mk. IIs were supplied from US sources until Canadian-built Harvards started rolling off the assembly lines in 1941.

In August 1938, Noorduyn Aviation of Montreal farsightedly signed an agreement with North American to build Harvards under licence. When the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP) came into being in December 1939, Noorduyn received its first orders and once into production went on to construct nearly 2,800 Harvard IIBs for the RCAF and the RAF, between 1940 and 1945.

In Canada, Harvard IIBs were used as advanced trainers with the BCATP at 15 Service Flying Training Schools (SFTS) spread across the nation. They helped pilots make the transition from low-powered primary trainers like the DH Tiger Moth or Fleet Finch to high performance front line fighters. The Harvard was well suited to this role as it had habits to teach inexperienced pilots to respect the Spitfires and Hurricanes they would meet in the future.

At the end of WWII, although the RCAF retained the Harvard as a trainer, a large number of
them were declared surplus and sold-off to civilian operators. The RCAF soon regretted doing this, for by 1949 the Cold War with the Soviet Union was in full swing and the RCAF needed trainers again urgently. 100 T-6J Texans were leased temporarily from the USAF and a further 270 Harvards, now the Mk. IV version, were ordered from Canadian Car & Foundry in Thunder Bay. The RCAF kept the Harvard Mk. IV on as a trainer for a further 15 years, before finally retiring it in 1966.

A total of 20,110 Harvards/T-6s/SNJs were built between 1938 and 1954, 3,370 of them in Canada.

Ken Dwelle flew "Tinkertoy" to a first place finish in the Sunday T-6 Gold Race at the 2008 Reno National Championship Air Races at a new Class Record speed of 244.523 mph. Tom Dwelle Sr. flew "Tinkertoy" to a first place finish in the T-6 Gold Race at both the 1989 and 1990 Reno National Championship Air Races.

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