AT-6 Seen As Versatile Combat Aircraft

Aviation Week and Space Technology ^ | May 18, 2011 | David Fulghum

[sukhoi-30mki]

Artwork: Hawker Beechcraft

[BwanaNdege]

Naaa, this is the way to turn a trainer into a CAS aircraft.

(It's a T-28D for you young whipper-snappers. That's a B-17 engine hanging off the front.)

[ExGeeEye]

Looks like a WW2 bird (even leaving out the nose art).

I suppose looks are deceiving....

[Broker]

AC-208B... Look that stealthy STOL single turbo high wing Cessna up on Google. Deploys small squads for tactical insertion missions. HALO. Loitering command center & weapons platform on station for 6 hours or more. Hellfire and guns as required. Short field landing and retrieval. Stealthy ride home. Uses convenient and appropriate markings.

Air medals, valor and Purple Hearts; in appreciation for those who do God's work.

[USNBandit]

Hey, let's see a real photograph. Whoops, there isn't one. Our warriors are being denied use of the Embraer Super-T that they needed yesterday, so Beechcraft can get the AT-6 ready for tomorrow.

[Broker]

T-28A/B/C Engine Pratt & Whitney R-1820. Not familiar with Ds. Great plane to fly, fully acrobatic and forgiving. Go Navy!

[lurk]

Sort of a Spitfire/Mustang look to it. Funny how we’re going back to a platform that’s 70 years old.

It’ll be hard to beat the A-10’s cost and firepower.

[hinckley buzzard]

The original AT-6 Texan was a WWII era trainer. This bird is apparently too tough to die.

[BwanaNdege]

The “D” had added hardpoints for ordnance plus an ejection seat (Martin-Baker, IIRC)

Yeah, the T-28 was a kick to fly! When did you go through Pensacola?

As to the “forgiving”, it was kinda interesting in spin recovery. Put in the corrections and it would go another 3/4 turn, pause briefly, then snap into the opposite rotation if you didn’t center the rudder pedals ASAP.

Fun bird to fly, though. GOBS of torque!

[BwanaNdege]

Cessna Caravan!

Thanks, that’s a new adaptation to me. Super reliable aircraft.

[okie01]

The original AT-6 Texan was a WWII era trainer. This bird is apparently too tough to die.

Somebody in our neighborhood has an original AT-6. They bring it out on weekends to practice aerobatics over the golf course.

The sound of that P&W Wasp engine is unmistakable -- an intrusive, whining buzz.

[Bean Counter]

Correct me if I’m wrong, but they built that plane to accommodate that engine, no?

Kind of like building the Wart Hog around that enormous gatling gun....

[ExGeeEye]

That explains a great deal.

For a second there I thought I was looking at a P-51.

[baddog 219]

The only low tech plane for me...

[Always Independent]

Wondering why it has to be a two seater? A-10 pilots fly their missions alone.

[BwanaNdege]

I believe the idea behind the T-28 was to give student pilots experience in high torque aircraft prior to jumping into a monster like the AD-1 Skyraider with the R-3350-26W 2,800 hp engine.

All of the student pilots I knew were unable to hold the brakes on the T-28 during their first engine run-up. It would either creep forward, or they’d let one brake slip and it would pivot around the other gear.

I had a buddy trying to learn a maneuver called “Approach Turn Stall Recovery”. The correct proceedure was to lower the nose, level the wings and give it 36” MAP (power). He kept getting it wrong, got frustrated and slammed the throttle to the stop, 48” MAP.

The resultant 1425 hp, or thereabouts, torque-rolled the aircraft 720 degrees, two complete rolls before he could catch it.

Awesome beast!

I talked to the private owner of a T-28 at Sun-n-Fun one year who had previously owned a P-51. I asked him how the T-28 compared and he said that it was very similar in power to an early P-51A.

[Jeff Chandler]

[Erasmus]

Got a teeny bit of stick time on one a few weeks ago.

[USNBandit]

Looks like a painted up T-6 to me, without any of the stuff to accomplish the mission. A center pylon isn't going to cut it.

I'm just frustrated because I know some of the guys that worked on the Tucano project and then got the rug pulled out from under them by the Kansas congressional delegation right before they were going to deploy.

[BwanaNdege]

Speaking of the A-10 Warthog and the GAU-8 cannon, here is Burt Rutan's version he tried to sell to DOD. He "borrowed" a GAU-12 for testing. The GAU-8 was 7 barrels, 30mm while the GAU-12 was 5 barrels, 25mm.

The engine intake is on the opposite side of the fuselage from the gun muzzle. Otherwise the engine would flame out from the muzzle blast and gasses.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scaled_Composites_ARES