Ryan PT-20, with the factory designation STM, followed the previous sport and trainer variants of the Rayn ST (Sport Trainer) planes. The “M” in the designation means Military, Ryan supplied these aircraft to the US Air Force (they later preferred the PT-22 version with radial engine), to China, Dutch East Indies and several Latin American air forces. The American planes were used for training on US soil, those in the Dutch East Indies had a more colourful fate. Part of them was equipped with floats, the others had a wheeled undercarriage. They were used for training both army and navy pilots. After a Japanese attack, part of the Dutch planes was destroyed, some were captured and used by the Japanese Air Force. The rest were evacuated to Australia where they joined the RAAF training units and served there till the end of the war.
We first made the PT-20 kit in 1995 and in 2004 we reboxed it as the PT-22 version. Both kits were sold out in 2006. But while we were cleaning up our warehouse recently (AKA the Tin House) we found a whole box of these sprues. So we decided to re-introduce the kit to modellers. The sprues are not really up to Special Hobby’s current standards so we created a new product line with the fitting name “Vintage treasure”.
The decals are new and offer one USAAF plane and an ex-Dutch one in RAAF colours. The windshields are vacuformed. We recommend this kit for experienced modellers only. As we have a very limited number of sprues you can only buy the kit via our website or at modelling shows where we participate.