Consolidated PT - 1 Trusty The Consolidated PT - 1 Trusty ( company designation Model 1 ) was a biplane primary trainer used by the United States Army Air Service . Design and development . In 1921 , Colonel Virginius Clark , chief designer of the Dayton - Wright Company , designed the Chummy sporting biplane . The airframe was advanced in its use of the new Clark Y airfoil thick - section aerofoil and a welded fuselage framework of chrome - molybdenum steel tubing . A departure from the all - wood structures found in other trainers , the structure proved sturdy and dependable . It was offered to the US Army Air Service as a replacement for the Curtiss JN - 4D trainer , with a choice of Le Rhone or Clerget rotary piston engines . In 1922 , the Army ordered three TA - 3 ( Trainer , Air - cooled , Type 3 ) machines for evaluation with the Le Rhone engine and dual controls . Evaluation showed that the type had the makings of a good trainer , but was somewhat lacking in power , so in 1923 Dayton - Wright re - engined one TA - 3 with a more powerful 110 hp ( 82 kW ) Le Rhone . The USAAS then ordered 10 examples of this up - engined model , and these were the last US Army aircraft to be delivered with a rotary - engine . Appreciating this type of powerplant had passed its development peak , the USAAS then contracted for three examples of the TW - 3 ( Trainer , Watercooled , Type 3 ) with a 150 hp ( 112 kW ) Wright - Hispano I V8 . The revised type clearly had greater long - term potential , and in June 1923 the USAAS contracted for 20 TW - 3 production aircraft , together with enough spare parts for the construction of another three aircraft . At this time the General Motors Corporation was thinking of pulling out of the aircraft business and closing its Dayton - Wright subsidiary , so Reuben Fleet of the Gallaudet company secured rights to the Dayton - Wright trainer design . When Gallaudet shareholders expressed disapproval at this move , Fleet left the company and established the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation . It was to this new company the TW - 3 order went , and all the aircraft were delivered by the end of 1923 with the uprated powerplant of one Wright - Hispano E ( licence - built Hispano - Suiza 8 ) engine . Once the aircraft had entered service , Fleet continued to improve the TW - 3 , the most important change being the removal of the engine cowling to improve the occupants ' forward and downward fields of vision . Visibility was still poor , so Fleet secured US Army permission to rebuild one TW - 3 with a new , slimmer fuselage , providing tandem rather than side - by - side seating . This revised aircraft was generally known as the ' Camel ' due to the hump between its two cockpits . The ' Camel ' may be regarded as the prototype of the Consolidated response to the USAAS ' s 1924 requirement for a new primary trainer . In the early summer of 1924 , the USAAS tested a prototype unofficially designated TW - 8 and placed an order for 50 examples of the Consolidated Model 1 production variant for service with the designation PT - 1 . Early production models had flat dorsal turtledecks , soon replaced by a faired version , and some of the first ones were likely built at the Gallaudet plant in Norwich before production began at Buffalo . The first 171 of the 221 produced used a streamlined nose radiator , the remainder used the unfaired installation . One PT - 1 airframe was completed as XPT - 2 with a 220 hp ( 164 kW ) Wright J - 5 radial engine . Operational history . The PT - 1 became the first training airplane purchased by the Army Air Service in substantial quantity following World War I . Aviation cadets in Texas and California flew it extensively during the late 1920s and early 1930s . It acquired the nickname ' Trusty ' for their excellent ability to make a quick and effective recovery from a spin . Easy to fly , the Trusty made some students overconfident , and they received a shock when they advanced to faster airplanes with more difficult handling characteristics . The ' Trusty ' was commonly flown without its cowlings in an effort to prevent overheating Whereas the TW - 3 had supplemented the JN - 4D , the PT - 1 supplanted this wholly obsolescent type and was responsible for a radical improvement in the safety record of US Army pilot training . One of the aircraft was diverted to the US Navy for trials , and four other generally similar aircraft were delivered to Siam in 1928 . From 1928 the PT - 1 was replaced in front - line service by the Consolidated PT - 3 , but then became a valuable implement in the National Guard flying programme until retired in the early 1930s .