The Fleet 16B Finch II was a progressive development of the original Consolidated Fleet primary trainer, manufacture of which commenced in Canada by Fleet Aircraft in 1930. After a Royal Canadian Air Force evaluation in 1938 recommended a number of changes, a total of 431 Finch trainers were built for the RCAF between 1939 and 1941. The aircraft had conventional construction for the period with a welded steel-tube fuselage having Warren truss structure for its sides; and composite metal, wood and fabric design features, with Frise ailerons, a flat-bottom airfoiled, variable incidence lifting two-piece tailplane; and similarly "lifting airfoil" on the fixed vertical stabilizer, cambered into an airfoil on its port side only, to offset the P-factor of the propeller's swirling slipstream. The RCAF acquired the aircraft type as an elementary trainer. The Fleet 16 first entered RCAF service with tandem open cockpits, but the severity of the Canadian winter necessitated the introduction of a sliding canopy at an early stage in the trainer's service career. The earlier Model 10's centre-hinged main landing gear radius rods were retained for the Model 16 series, as these centre-hinged units had replaced the "looped" left mainwheel's radius rod design that had been on the even-earlier Fleet Models 1, 2 & 7 biplanes from their own origins in November 1928.
Operational history
The Finch was a mainstay of the RCAF prior to and during the early part of the Second World War, flying at the Elementary Flying Training Schools in parallel with the better known de Havilland Tiger Moth, also produced in Canada. The earlier Fleet Model 7 was also in use for primary training. During 1940, initial production problems were solved and timely deliveries were made to the RCAF, allowing the first training programs to start up. In the following year, the Portuguese Navy purchased ten Model 16Ds and later a further five 16Ds were delivered in 1942. A total of 606 Fleet Finches were produced as Model 16s, the majority for the RCAF. They were used as initial trainers in the BCATP at no fewer than 12 Elementary Flight Training Schools across Canada. Both the Fleet Finch and Tiger Moth were later replaced by the Fairchild PT-26 Cornell. The Finch was progressively phased out of service from October 1944 with the last of the Model 16s struck off strength from the RCAF inventory in 1947.
registration N666J, one of two Finches based at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in New York State, since at least 1970, with at least three different color schemes in its four decades-plus of flying in Old Rhinebeck's weekend airshows. Since suffering a crash landing in 2016, the aircraft is awaiting a rebuild.
;;Model 16R
registration C-FDAF, serial 92319, at the Guelph Airport in Ontario and painted as 4494.
Aircraft on display
;;Model 16B
registration C-GQWE, serial 567, at the RCAF No.6 Dunnville Museum in Ontario and painted as 4708.
