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The PT-19 developed by Fairchild in 1938 to satisfy a military requirement for a rugged monoplane primary trainer, was ordered into quantity production in 1940. In addition to being manufactured by Fairchild during WW II, the "Cornell" was produced in the U.S. by the Aeronca, Howard and St. Louis Aircraft Corporations and in Canada by Fleet Aircraft, Ltd. The PT-26 is a canopied version of the open-cockpit PT-19 Cornell developed by Fairchild in 1938. In 1942 the Army Air Forces (AAF) ordered the PT-26 into production for the Royal Canadian Air Force under the Lend-Lease Program. A total of more than 1,700 PT-26s were produced in the U.S. by Fairchild and in Canada by Fleet Aircraft, Ltd. The PT-26, like the PT-19, used a Ranger air-cooled, in-line engine. A third Cornell variant, the open-cockpit PT-23, was very similar to the PT-19 and PT-26, but was powered by a Continental air-cooled radial engine. By the time Cornell production came to an end, approximately 7,700 PT-19s, PT-23s, and PT-26s had been built under AAF contracts. Cornells were supplied to Canada, Norway, Brazil, Ecuador and Chile.
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