Beside the famous fighters and bombers, there were a lot of utility aircraft no one knows. The Cessna T-50 was one of these. The USAAF used this model as AT-17 Bobcat to train their bomber pilots and as UC-78 as light transport. The prototype T-50 made its maiden flight on 26 March 1939. In 1940, the United States Army Air Corps ordered them under the designation AT-8 as multi-engine advanced trainers. In 1942, the U.S. Army Air Force (the successor to the Air Corps from June 1941) adopted the Bobcat as a light personnel transport and those delivered after January 1, 1943 were designated UC-78. By the end of World War II, Cessna had produced more than 4,600 Bobcats for the U.S. military, 67 of which were transferred to the United States Navy as JRC-1s. In addition, 822 Bobcats had been produced for the Royal Canadian Air Force as Crane Is, many of which were used in the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. The aircraft did not last long in North American postwar military service. Few (if any) Bobcats were in service with the United States Air Force when it was formed in September, 1947. Surviving military aircraft were declared obsolete in 1949.