This piece originally ran in the December 2025 issue of EAA Sport Aviation magazine.

The relatively unknown North American A-27 was a ground attack variant of the AT-6 Texan, built specifically for Thailand. It differed from the AT-6 by swapping the R-1340 radial engine for a more powerful R-1820 engine with a three-bladed propeller. The A-27 also featured three .30-caliber machine guns: two in the nose firing forward, and one facing rearward for a rear-seat gunner. Only 10 A-27s were produced, with all 10 being intercepted by the U.S. government while on their way to Thailand and sent to Nichols Field in the Philippines under the 4th Composite Group of the U.S. Army Air Forces. All 10 of these aircraft were destroyed on the ground during the Japanese attack on December 8, 1941. This horizontal stabilizer is from one of those aircraft and is likely the largest piece, if not the only surviving piece, of an A-27 today.