Update on the Restoration of Vultee BT-13 “Annie”

Back in February, VAN contributor Luc Zipkin produced an article about the restoration of a Vultee BT-13A Valiant named Annie by the group Valiant Effort, LLC at Livermore Municipal Airport, CA. As mentioned in Luc’s article, the aircraft manufactured in Vultee’s Downey, California plant in May 1942 as c/n 74-5057 was delivered to the USAAF as 41-21218, spending the war years at Merced Army Airfield (later Castle Air Force Base and now Merced-Castle Airport) as fuselage code E524 before being sold surplus by the War Assets Administration and going through several civilian owners over the decades. Even making a background appearance in the movie Forever Young. In 2008, pilot Martin Michaud of Monte Vista, CA, acquired the aircraft from the late John Hannigan, whose name remains on the forward canopy frame in his honor. Wanting to share his passion for warbirds, Michaud took pilots up in the backseat of the Vultee, registered as N59842, around the San Francisco Bay area. Some of these pilots got together, and by 2014, the BT-13 was present at many local airshows and airport fly-ins. In 2016, the aircraft was even flown to Sweetwater, TX, to visit the National WASP Museum, honoring the thousands of Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) who flew countless aircraft across the country during WWII.

But on October 16, 2018, just after takeoff from Livermore Airport for a routine training flight, the Pratt & Whitney R-985 radial on N59842 sputtered and quit. Though the pilots got it back on the runway, N59842 did not have enough space to stop on the runway, and the Valiant was still rolling by the time it reached a drainage ditch, sending it belly-flopping onto the ground and into the airport’s perimeter fence, breaking the landing gear and damaging the lower surfaces of the aircraft, from the engine cowling, oil cooler duct, and the flap on the left wing. Fortunately, no injuries came to the two pilots on board, but the incident resulted in the current restoration, which has revealed a new name for the aircraft. When the crew was checking the wing spars for corrosion, they found that an anonymous assembly line worker wrote the name ANNIE on a piece of the structure. Though it is unlikely that they will ever find the person who wrote that name on their aircraft, they have decided to christen their plane Annie in honor of the factory workers who put her together at the height of WWII.

On a typical day at Livermore Airport, the crew of Valiant Effort (Martin Michaud, Greg Ely, Taurus Fey, Bob Goodwyn, Keith Zimbauer, Charlie Bellenie, Alex Esguerra, and Edgar Xiong) can be heard fetching wrenches, removing access panels, and often ribbing each other as the sun shines on the Valiant from the open doorway of the place they call Hangar Town. The summer heat is nothing to sneeze at, but the crew carries on their work, getting closer to the air with every rivet and every bolt reinstalled. In the latest of their monthly newsletters, published in August, they write: “Charlie, Taurus, Bob, and [Greg] have been busy getting the last of the small, crazy stuff together that makes us all stay up at night thinking “did I tighten that?” New rear cockpit low fuel light is installed, and only finish wiring is needed, plugs were pulled, and engine has been cranked over to pre-oil, and we have 15 to 20 PSI in the system. Purging the oil out of the crankcase, and refilling has been done, so thatʼs a go. Fuel selector valve has been cleaned & serviced, new taper pins installed in the linkage (thanks Charlie), so thatʼs out of the way. We were working on a slow leak on the LH gear strut, so pulled the valve, bled the system down, re-pressurized it and now weʼre checking for leaks. Charlie & Taurus added fluid and bled the brakes, and gave us the best brake pedal sheʼs had in years! Rock on guys!! Also, new VHF com antennas are in, just working with the fasteners on the lower panel….we wanna tell ground what all the smoke is during startup! We also got the correct pitot tube, and itʼll get painted and installed so a static check can get done…thanks Kurt Grasso for the part!

“We also installed a new intercom, but still having the same issues as before, so weʼre going to rewire the jacks….the old wiring looks like something from Chef Boyardee. The LH flap is out for repair, and the new cowling is being cleaned up for paint, along with new hardware on the mounts and as you all know, this stuff takes some time. Also, for safety to the crews, weʼre installing new fire extinguishers in both the front and rear cockpits.…the rear one will be in the original place which is accessible from both inside & outside. We also got some help from our “Junior Stick Actuator” Edgar, in getting things ready for the big day. Got lots of help, and itʼs appreciated!”

On September 7, the crew towed Annie with the WWII-era tug to the flight apron just around the corner from their hangar and washed the aircraft down, clearing the dust accumulated on the airframe from its time in the hangar before towing back. Another milestone in recent days has been the powering of the electrical systems, as the Valiant’s navigation lights have been successfully tested. Another milestone for the project to complete will be when the new cowling will be painted and installed on the aircraft, along with the left hand flap and the oil cooler duct present on the bottom of the cowling.

Through their dedication, and the generosity of donors and airport neighbors, the crew at Valiant Effort is doing everything they can to get the overhauled P&W R-985 engine ready for its first ground run-ups, which will be among the last steps before the aircraft begins flight testing, which they hope to complete before the year is out. When Annie is re-certified to fly again, the crew will fly the aircraft to future airshows and airport fly-ins around northern and central California, with Annie’s new mission being to educate the general public on the different types of training aircraft used to qualify pilots during the Second World War. The team is also interested in flying Annie all the way to the EAA’s Airventure at Oshkosh, and in continuing to qualify future warbird pilots for years to come. If you would like to support Valiant Effort’s endeavor to put Annie back in the air, visit the fundraiser HERE.

Adam Estes

Raised in Fullerton, California, Adam has earned a bachelor's degree in history and is now pursuing his master's in the same field. Fascinated by aviation history from a young age, he has visited numerous air museums across the United States, including the National Air and Space Museum and the San Diego Air and Space Museum. He volunteers at the Planes of Fame Air Museum in Chino as a docent and researcher, gaining hands-on experience with aircraft maintenance. Known for his encyclopedic knowledge of aviation history, he is particularly interested in the stories of individual aircraft and their postwar journeys. Active in online aviation communities, he shares his work widely and seeks further opportunities in the field.

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