PT-22 Recruit

The Ryan PT-22 Recruit was a United States Army Air Corps training aircraft that was introduced in 1941 and built by Ryan Aeronautical Company of San Diego, California. Developed from the Ryan ST, a civilian sport and training aircraft built by the company in the early 1930’s, the PT-22 filled a valuable need for training aircraft in the United States military with the outbreak of the Second World War in December 1941. Production of the PT-22 continued until 1942 when a total of 1048 examples were built. Interestingly, the Netherlands East Indies (modern day Indonesia) had placed an order for 25 PT-22’s that were equipped with floats (a seaplane version) but were forced to cancel the order after the country was overrun by Imperial Japanese forces in May 1942.