The Texan massacre of '62

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Graeme

1st Sergeant
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May 31, 2007
You know how it is on the internet, one thing leads to another. Looking for oddball aircraft and I came across a Ranger powered Texan, which is interesting...

XAT-6E Texan Restoration Program




...but just as interesting is this factoid within the link...

By the time of the Bay of Pigs Cuban invasion (1962) a large number of AT-6's were cut up and sold for scrap.
There were two stories given for the destruction of these aircraft, both plausible. The first was that the U.S. government was afraid that the Cuban government would obtain the planes and arm them to use against the US and its allies. The second was the General Aviation industry's fear of a large number of inexpensive surplus planes being dumped on the market. Especially when many of their potential customers had flown the AT-6 during the war. A number of these planes were bought by a company that provided aircraft for the movie industry.

Never heard of this before. Anyone know more? How many were destroyed?

 

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