Back in the dark days of 1938, the British Government
under Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain at last woke up
to the inevitability of conflict with Germany and the
need to build up very rapidly a Royal Air Force which
would stand a chance of dealing with the situation. The
British aircraft industry was, not surprisingly, quite
unable to cope with the high volume output suddenly and
belatedly demanded of it, and it was therefore decided
that aircraft of certain categories should be procured in
the United States of America. To carry out this plan, the
British Purchasing Commission was formed; it left for
Washington in April 1938, complete with a budget of $25
million, which is not much in the aviation world now but
was a great deal then. The first of the three aircraft
types which the BPC selected that year was an advanced
trainer, the North American NA-49, for which an order for
200 (soon doubled), Contract No. 791588/38, was placed in
the summer of 1938. The new aircraft, deliveries of which
were to begin from North American's Inglewood, California
plant as soon as possible, would be known by the RAF as
the Harvard Mk.1 and would be fitted with some items of
British equipment on arrival in the United Kingdom.The NA-16, which was the ancestor of the NA-49, had first flown in April 1935 at Dundalk, Maryland and North American had received an initial order later that year from the United States Army Air Corps under their designation BT-9. Since then, production of this and other variants had quickly gathered momentum, so that by the time the BPC placed their order more than 400 aircraft had already rolled off the production line for the USAAC, as well as many for export. No major problems were expected, therefore, when the first aircraft, serialled N7000, arrived in England and was taken on charge at the Aeroplane & Armament Experimental Establishment at Martlesham Heath on 3 December 1938 so that a programme of testing could be carried out and Pilots' Notes prepared. So began the long life-story of the Harvard in British military service, a story which has by no means ended yet. In 'The Harvard File' the Author has restricted himself to dealing with the histories of the 4760 Harvards which carried British military serial numbers. 168 pages, A4. ISBN 0-85130-160-6 First Published 1988 by Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd, 12 Lonsdale Gardens, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN1 1PA, England. Click here to visit the Air-Britain Website 
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