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Ryan PT-22 Antique Aircraft Picture

This the Ryan PT-22 owned by Dan Collier.

A Ryan PT-22 from Dan Collier. Great photos and pictures.

At the Yellow Airplane Online Museum

A Beautiful Ryan PT-22 Antique Airplane Picture

Owned by Dan Colier

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Dan Collier flies his beautifully restored vintage Ryan PT-22 Airplane over Southern California

Photo from Dan Collier

My Ryan PT-22 is presently being stored in California in my hangar and I am presently on Guam, but I have a photo of it stored on my hotmail account. So I will send you the photo shortly. I have tried to get the plane restored to as close to original as I could, and I'm sorry I don't have a photo of the panels right now, but both panels are original configuration, as called for from the parts list and from the photos I've seen in the training manual. One of the hardest things to come up with was the original compass, as they used a bubble-faced compass, and not the standard B-16's like you see in most Ryans today. And I had to remake the whole rear instrument panel, as it had extra holes cut in it for more instruments over the years. Working in a professional sheet metal shop made this a fairly easy task. I just found an original seat belt for it. The belt is in very nice shape and has all the military inspection stamps and a date stamped '43. The slack-takeup hardware on the WWII belts was different from the postwar belts, and they were more of an olive-kakhi color. Really looking forward to installing it in the plane when I get back home. I have a second belt at home, so finally I have a matching set. It's little things like that that make a difference in a restoration, I think. A photo of my Ryan will follow, and thank you for your pleasant response. Regards, Dan Collier

The Ryan PT-22 Recruit is a military trainer aircraft used by the United States Army Air Corps and it successor, the United States Army Air Forces for primary pilot training. It was the first monoplane that the Army had used for primary pilot training, as all previous PT aircraft were biplanes.

With the rapid expansion of U.S. air forces in 1941 came a similar increase in the need to train pilots and aircrews. In that year, Ryan received orders for the PT-22, officially named Recruit, which was powered by the larger Kinner R-540 engine of 160 hp. This was to be the major production model of the Recruit, with 1,023 built. On the PT-22, the landing gear fairings, also called "spats" were removed from the design, as they had made it difficult to inspect and repair the landing gear. Since a military primary trainer spent at least half of its time practicing landings and take offs with beginning pilots, care of the landing gear was more important that the slight gain in top speed that the spats provided.

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