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Description
| Manufacturer: | Beechcraft | |
| Base model: | AT-7 | |
| Designation: | AT-7 | |
| Nickname: | Navigator | |
| Equivalent to: | C-45 F-2 AT-11 | |
| Designation System: | U.S. Air Force | |
| Designation Period: | 1924-1948 | |
| Basic role: | Advanced Trainer | |
| See Also: | ||
Specifications
| Length: | 34' 3" | 10.4 m | |
| Height: | 10' | 3.0 m | |
| Wingspan: | 47' 8" | 14.5 m | |
| Wingarea: | 349.0 sq ft | 32.4 sq m | |
| Empty Weight: | 5,935 lb | 2,691 kg | |
| Gross Weight: | 7,850 lb | 3,560 kg | |
Propulsion
| No. of Engines: | 2 | ||
| Powerplant: | Pratt & Whitney R-985-AN-3 | ||
| Horsepower (each): | 450 | ||
Performance
| Range: | 585 miles | 942 km | |
| Max Speed: | 224 mph | 360 km/h | 194 kt |
| Ceiling: | 18,400 ft | 5,608 m | |
Recent comments by our visitors
| Nancy Price Fresno, CA | Coming Aug. 31 from
THE FRESNO BEE Central California's Leading Newspaper “Lost Flights: The Sierra’s deadly legacy,” a series of print stories and online reports by The Bee's Mark Grossi and Cyndee Fontana. Come with us Aug. 31-Sept. 17 and relive the stories of doomed flights. Examine the Sierra’s dangerous terrain and weather. Learn why there are so many crashes and why it's so difficult to recover lost planes. In the center of the series, Grossi and photographer Mark Crosse will bring the Sierra front and center when they hike to Mendel Glacier in search of the remains of airmen who were lost on a training flight in 1942. Join them as they blog live from the mountain. The series will package stories, photos, maps, charts, videos, audio clips and blogs for an in-depth review of Sierra plane crashes. You can join the journey now; enjoy early blogs, galleries and more at http://www.fresnobee.com/lostflights. Be sure to bookmark the page so that you can keep up with the series as it unfolds in print and online Aug. 31 through Sept. 17, only in The Fresno Bee and FresnoBee.com 08/25/2008 @ 13:13 [ref: 22544] |
| Peter Stekel Seattle, WA | Steve Johnson, I'm intrigued by your comments from July 31, 2008 about the AT-7 crash and weather and how you find "many attributes about this crash to be totally unbelievable."
Would you consider contacting me? I'd like to further explore your thoughts about the weather before I meet with people in September, 2008, from the Western Region Climate Center in Reno. please write to: peter@FinalFlightTheBook.com 08/09/2008 @ 14:14 [ref: 22402] |
| Steve Johnson Fresno, CA | I've been researching and studying the meteorlogical conditions of the storm and have found the incident to be full of profound weatherwise surprises. I'm very familar with this region of the Sierras having flown aboard many cloud seeding missions over Mt Darwin/Mendel and know personally how extremely dangerous crossing the Sierra Crest can be. I therefore find many attributes about this crash to be totally unbelievable. 07/31/2008 @ 00:18 [ref: 22307] |
| Tom Dominguez Coalinga, CA | In 1941, a navigator training version was put in service as the AT-7 "Navigator," which was followed in production by six AT-7As, which were modified with floats and given a large ventral fin. Of nine winterized AT-7's designated AT-7B, one was provided to Netherlands Prince Bernhard during his wartime exile, and five were supplied to the British.
The Model 18 was further modified during 1941 as the advanced trainer model AT-ll "Kansas" (subsequently renamed "Kansan"), which was intended for bombardier and gunnery training, equipped with a small bomb bay, transparent bombardier's nose section, and two .30 cal. machine guns, 1 in the nose and one in a dorsal turret. Of the more than 1500 AT-11s built, 36 were converted to AT-11A advanced navigator trainers. A photo reconnaissance variant, designated F-2, was the final wartime run of Model 18s produced for the Army Air Force, of which 69 were acquired. From warbirdalley.com 02/13/2008 @ 21:17 [ref: 19666] |
| Peter Stekel Seattle, WA | I've just gotten off the phone with Mrs. Jeanne Pyle, a sister of Ernest Glenn Munn [7:30 PM PST 2/11/08]. Glenn was one of the cadets on the ship that crashed into Mendel Glacier in November, 1942. JPAC notified her and her family this afternoon that the person I found on the glacier last August was her brother.
If you're interested, check my blog at http://finalflightthebook.com/Final_Flight_bog_home.htm and I will post more data as it is known. Peter Stekel http://www.finalflightthebook.com 02/11/2008 @ 18:59 [ref: 19655] |
| Peter Stekel , WA | For nearly two years I've been conducting research for FINAL FLIGHT, my book about the Beech 18 AT-7 Navigator #41-21079 that crashed into Mt. Mendel in Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks on November 18, 1942. The book project is the outgrowth of a magazine article I wrote for Sierra Heritage, published in Sept/October 2006. You can read a PDF version of the story at: http://www.peterstekel.com/PDF-HTML/Mystery.PDF
Two ice climbers discovered the body of Cadet Leo Mustonen on the Mendel Glacier in October, 2005. In August, 2007, while exploring the Mendel Glacier, my hiking partner and I discovered the body of a second cadet. There are many confusing reports about the crash. Some were created by the lack of records from the time and others came about by poor research on the part of past writers and the media during Cadet Mustonen's recovery and identification. This is not to bash the work of these other writers! Being a freelance writer I fully understand the crush of deadlines and of having assignments in fields I do not fully comprehend or understand. Journalists these days must often file a story/day [or more]. It is a hard job and errors are often made. To answer some previous poster's questions: There were four aviators [pilot 2nd Lt William Gamber and cadets Mustonen, Munn and Mortenson] aboard 41-21079 when it vanished. In 1947, some UC Berkeley students found wreckage from what was eventually identified as the plane below Mt. Mendel. One of the students guided a small recovery team consisting of Capts Robert Lewis [age 28, from San Bernardino, CA], Andrew Walton and Robert Goulding and USFS Ranger Neil L. Perkins. They horse-packed in from Florence Lake to the crash site. According to the 1947 USAAF report, "The remains of the deceased were not recoverable." In 1948, another attempt, commanded by Capt Roy F. Sulzbacher, from Ft Lewis, WA, to recover remains was made but to no avail. If anyone has knowledge of how to contact any of these captains [or their families], I would be most appreciative. I have designed a web page for FINAL FLIGHT where links to news articles may be found as well as information about my book project. I have also posted some photos from my August trip on the FINAL FLIGHT page including images of the aircraft's radial engines and what I believe to be is an exhaust manifold. I would be very grateful to hear from anyone who is knowledgeable about the Pratt & Whitney engines used in the Beech 18 - particularly the cryptic writing found inside the engine cowling. 09/06/2007 @ 12:29 [ref: 17856] |
| Tom Lachtrupp Cincinnati, OH | Ok, I keep reading that there were four airmen on board. But I also keep reading that in '47 three bodies were recovered along with wreckage. Then in 2005 a fourth body was recovered. Now a fifth? Something doesn't add up. Seems like they need to exhume the three that were burred in '47 and figure out who they are as well as the new body. 08/21/2007 @ 15:19 [ref: 17713] |
| G.T. Burnette , CA | Sirs What is the didderent between a AT-7 $ a AT-11??. Thanks for any help. be well. G.T. 08/21/2007 @ 14:56 [ref: 17711] |
| carter Endsley , FL |
A second set of remains were found on or about August 20, 2007 at the glacier location near the 1942 crash of the AT-7. The second set of human remains was found in an alpine region oRangers located the body exposed on a remote rock glacier between granite boulders, his undeployed parachute, stenciled "US ARMY," just inches (centimeters) away. The Air Force was part of the Army until 1947. On board were Mustonen, of Brainerd, Minnesota; pilot William Gamber, 23; and aviation cadets John Mortenson, 25, and Ernest Munn, 23, of St. Clairsville, Ohio. A blizzard is believed to have caused the crash. The second set of human remains was found in an alpine region of Kings Canyon National Park in the Sierra Nevada range on Wednesday, as little as 50 feet from where climbers spotted the ice-entombed body of Leo Mustonen in October 2005, park officials said. 08/21/2007 @ 09:02 [ref: 17702] |
| Nick Esqueda Fresno, CA | I was part of the Helitack Crew that went to recover the the body of Aviation Cadet Leo Mustonen, age 22 of Minn. on Mt. Mendel in Kings Canyon N.P. I am so glad that his family finally has found him and has given him a proper burial. 03/30/2006 @ 11:39 [ref: 12980] |
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