The team of Pilatus and Raytheon Aircraft was declared the winner of the JPATS competition, the Joint Primary Aircraft Training System in the 1990s. In this programme the US forces sought a replacement for the Cessna T-37 (USAF) and Beechcraft T-34 (US Navy).

Pilatus and Raytheon created a modified Pilatus PC-9, receiving Raytheon model number 3000. Under the US designation system it became known as T-6, and was therefore named Texan II, as the original North American T-6 had the name Texan.

As most high performance turboprop training aircraft the Texan II has low, straight wings, a turboprop engine in the nose and a tandem cockpit, in this case with a three piece canopy, so two bow frames. The aircraft has a conventional tail plane. Like on the PC-9 the first part of the wings, near the roots, has no dihedral, while the outer wings have a significant dihedral. The Texan IIs have a ventral fin below the tail. The dorsal fin is rather small, like on the original PC-9. The nose gear doors have a small opening or recess, in which the nose gear fits when it is retracted.

The different versions of the Texan II and Wolverine can be recognised by:

• the presence and number of weapon pylons under the wings
• the presence of a Head-Up Display (HUD)
• the presence of a turret sensor under the fuselage
• the presence of a system cooler under the nose

The A model of the T-6 is the basic training version of the US Air Force and US Navy. It has no head-up display (HUD), which should be visible from the outside. Inside the cockpit you will see many small displays. This original version has no provision for pylons under the wings.

The Canadian air force uses nearly the same version, for the NATO Flying Training in Canada (NFTC) programme. They designate it CT-156.

So far only the Hellenic Air Force has a potentially armed version of the T-6A, called the T-6A NTA. It has a pylon under each wing. The NTA version retains a non HUD cockpit though, and that is the recognition point compared to the AT-6B and later variants.

No head-up display (HUD), but pylons under the wings, so this is a T-6A NTA. (photo: Voytek S/WikiMedia)

The T-6B is similar to the T-6A except for the cockpit. The T-6B has less, but larger displays, and more importantly head-up displays (HUD). The latter should be visible from the outside, especially when viewed from close by.

The T-6C is the potentially armed version of the T-6B, with one pylon under each wing. Unlike the T-6A NTA is has the HUDs of the T-6B.

T-6D is the designation of a T-6C with specific roles of the US Army, other than training. We have not identified any differences compared to the T-6C though.

The Royal Air Force calls this version the Texan T1.

Beechcraft chose a different name for the dedicated light attack version of the T-6, namely Wolverine. There are several versions, AT-6B, AT-6E and AT-6TH. The B variant seems to be the development version, with the E model being the production versions. TH appears to be destined for the export version for Thailand. As the system, sensor and weapon configuration can be custom made, it is difficult to see the difference between the AT-6B and AT-6E. In any case both have three pylons under each wing, and often a round turret sensor under the fuselage (in between the wings) and a system cooler under the nose. 

On this frontal shot you can better see two other aspects of the AT-6, the sensor turret underneath the fuselage and the cooler underneath the nose. (photo: Airwolfhoud/WikiMedia)