Bare bones cockpit in a Fairchild PT19A Cornell
Can you imagine flying this? Well, this plane is still flying for the Commemorative Air Force.
The Fairchild PT-19 "Cornell" was a primary trainer developed for the U.S. Army Air Force.
Traditionally, primary training was done using biplanes like the Stearman PT-17 "Kaydet" or Navy N3N.
However, later it was felt that the transition from the very stable and forgiving biplanes to the more challenging monoplane
basic and advanced trainers was too abrupt; the student would feel overconfident after mastering the biplane and have trouble
adjusting to the later monoplanes. Therefore, the Army decided to introduce monoplane primary trainers like the PT-19.