About the airplane:

The Fairchild PT-19 was designed as a replacement for the PT-17 biplane primary trainer.  This aircraft offered flight characteristics more similar to the combat aircraft those aspiring pilots would later fly in the war.  Equipped with an inverted inline 6 cylinder Ranger engine with 175 HP, the aircraft had other modern design features like a very wide track landing gear with long suspension travel.  In it's role as a primary trainer it performed well, so that by 1945 production halted with about 8,000 aircraft completed. Varients included the radial engine equiped PT-23 and the PT-26 instrument trainer with an enclosed canopy. The RAF and RCAF also used the type.

This Pt-19, N323CJ was built in 1943 and went through a full 11 year restoration that included an upgrade to the 200HP Ranger engine and an electrical system.