Last September, we provided an update to the ongoing restoration of Vultee BT-13A Valiant 41-21218/N59842, better known as “Annie”, at Livermore Airport, California. Since that article, the team at Valiant Effort LLC has finally achieved its first post-restoration flight! On Sunday, August 10, pilots Alex Esguerra and Taurus Fey strapped themselves in, fired up the BT-13’s Pratt & Whitney R-985 Wasp Jr. radial engine, and taxied “Annie” up to the holding area for runway 25R. After checking the magnetos, rpm, and propeller pitch, Esguerra and Fey gently coaxed the BT-13 “Annie” back into the air for the first time since 2018.
For the team at Valiant Effort, it was the perfect culmination of this restoration, started when the aircraft was damaged seven years ago during a runway incursion on October 16, 2018. “Annie’s” restoration has seen the addition of a new engine, new cowling, new propeller, new left-hand flap, rebuilt landing gear, a full rewiring job, updates to the onboard avionics, and a host of other repairs and additions. It was also during this restoration that the aircraft got the name “Annie” following the discovery of that name being penciled onto the aircraft by an unknown factory worker at the Vultee Aircraft plant in Downey, California.
Besides the flight crew and the ground crew, overseen by the project’s crew chief Greg Ely, dozens of friends and family of the volunteer team came to Livermore Airport to watch the test flight. Even local reporter/cameraman Jaden Schaul from KTVU FOX 2 came out to the airport to record a segment for the local news (for more on that report, see this link HERE).
The two post-restoration flights on Sunday marked the beginning of a new chapter in “Annie’s” story, which has seen the BT-13 flying in the skies of California for over 80 years now, from training cadets at Merced Army Airfield (later Castle Air Force Base and now Merced-Castle Airport) to performing at airshows around the San Francisco Bay area. The latest airshow that “Annie” will attend is set to be the Palo Alto Airport Day to be held on September 28. In addition to this and other local airshows at the end of 2025 and into 2026 and beyond, the Valiant Effort team is considering a flight back to the Fly-In hosted at the National WASP WWII Museum at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas, where thousands of Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) learned to fly in training aircraft such as BT-13s.
Since VAN published its last article about the BT-13 Valiant “Annie” in September 2024, the team at Livermore made their first engine run on September 13, 2024. In January, pilot Taurus Fey and Alex Esguerra traveled to southern California’s Cable Airport in Upland, where fellow Vultee BT-13 pilot Daniel Wotring gave them recurrent flight training in preparation for Annie’s first flight. At that same time, fellow Valiant Effort volunteer and student pilot Edgar Xiong got to take his first BT-13 flight with Wotring and will eventually build up more hours flying Annie. Following these flights, Alex and Taurus conducted brake tests and taxi runs, getting a feel for the aircraft and bringing Annie a step closer to returning to flight.
Greg Ely, the project’s crew chief, also installed a new engine cowling on “Annie”. This cowling was acquired at a crop-dusting airstrip south of Chico and has now replaced the previous cowling damaged in the runway incursion. Now, the new cowling has been repainted and bears Annie’s name.
To follow future updates from the team at Livermore Airport, visit Valiant Effort LLC’s website: Valiant Effort LLC
