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WWII Part North American Aviation AT-6 T-6 SNJ MLG Retract Strut - Tech School Training Aide
Something of a fun piece here - one MLG retract strut for the North American Aviation AT-6 "Texan" Advanced Trainer and all of its Army and Navy reiterations. This is a piece specifically used for student instruction in a tech school - it's a formerly airworthy piece rendered non-airworthy and designed to be torn down and built up again by students to get them familiar with the components.
The brass data plate has a 62-586032 part number on it. Under Serial Number it's marked SCHOOL, making it abundantly clear it's a Tech School example. There's no date on the data block at the bottom of the data plate.
Nice strut. Heavy beast - about 8 pounds. Very specific to the NAA Texan. The unit is painted bright red to ID it as a training example. Further, it's had a little liht demilling so that someone doesn't attempt to raid this of parts to put on a flying aircraft. If you look close the rod end is a little buggered at the chrome tip. Conversely, the strut pivot end casting has been deformed a little bit with a hammer to deform it. Subtle changes, but purposeful in intent so that it doesn't get used on a flying example. I have no idea what the internals look like. The gland end shows no improper tooling marks from sepration work.
It's a neat little training aide left over from the war years. I've always found the tech school examples pretty fascinating and they tell a powerful story that most people don't think much about.
About 20" of stut and weight is about 8 pounds.
What you see in the photo series is exactly what you get. Ships cheapest via USPS Ground Advantage or FedEx Ground, I'd imagine. Questions? Please ask seller. And thanks for looking!
