Alas, the USAF retired the last of the T-37's in 2009. We almost replaced the T-37 with the T-46:
But kept the T-37 instead until the it was replaced in the 2000's by this plane, the Beechcraft T-6 Texan II:
Posted on 08/19/2016 8:03:30 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Northrop Grumman’s entry for the T-X competition was publicly revealed on 19 August in Mojave, California.
Dubbed the Model 400, the Northrop bid is powered by a single GE Aviation F404-102D engine with 17,200lb-thrust, according to the US Federal Aviation Adminitration’s aircraft registration database.
Scaled Composites, the Northrop subsidiary devoted to rapid prototyping and flight testing, registered the aircraft on 16 June 2015, but the design was kept under wraps for several more months.
Images of the aircraft on Twitter show an aircraft with a prominent, single vertical fin and a nose section similar to the T-38.
Northrop revealed a model of the T-X concept to a small group of journalists in mid-December last year during a tour of the company’s plant in nearby Palmdale.
Northrop is one of four competitors vying to replace the company’s venerable T-38C as the US Air Force’s advanced jet trainer.
Raytheon is proposing the T-100 variant of the twin-jet Leonardo M346 Master. Lockheed Martin is offering a modified version of the Korea Aerospace/Lockheed single-engined T-50 Golden Eagle. Boeing has partnered with Saab to offer a clean-sheet design, which has not been revealed.
The USAF plans to buy more than 300 T-X aircraft over the next decade. A draft request for proposals was released to industry last month.
Alas, the USAF retired the last of the T-37's in 2009. We almost replaced the T-37 with the T-46:
But kept the T-37 instead until the it was replaced in the 2000's by this plane, the Beechcraft T-6 Texan II:
Notice all the engines lying on the ground around that 747 aircraft.
Between that and seeing the Lockheed SR-71A together with its predecessor A-12 at the Blackbird Airpark, the "Balls-8" B-52 at North Edwards, and the Century Circle at the Edwards main entrance, and the Spaceship One model at the Spaceport, it was quite the aviation tour!
Originally the T-37 was the transition aircraft from prop to jet, then on to the supersonic T-38.
So why would they replace the jet T-37 with a prop T-6?
Do they now go from the T-6 straight to the T-38?
Reminds me of the BD-10.
I must have controlled a million of them, in 10 years at Laughlin.
Other than the possible need for a little more tail authority and the tiny nose due to there being no radar up front, I think it is a good job. The T-38 with an engine that wasn’t scared of the word ice; had an avionics upgrade; and better high angle performance is what I would be looking for. This looks like a good attempt at those items. Oh and it should recover from a spin; but I can’t tell that from the picture. Even though it seems to have a little extra tail surface.
Gives it the thrust it needs for the purpose and keeps costs down - not a surprise.
17,200 lbs of thrust is ‘UGE for a single. Right up there with the F-16C.
A-37 versions were down in central and south america for a while along with air tractors flown by “contractors”.....:o) Was heard from a very long way away.
Thanks !
Remember the Texan coming on line.... Grateful for the post. Is that Laughlin in the picture or Lubbock ?
Not Reese. Everything was perpendicular there.
From Texas to Florida
Houston to Cape Canaveral
ok.... never was stationed at either place.... all SAC, USAFE, PACAF, MAC . Thanks.
good article and great pictures
I’m pretty sure that used to be the case, and may still be.
A friend used to live just south of Patrick AFB (like within sight of the south base boundary), and you could often see the T-38s there, when driving by on A1A. They were like the astronauts’ sports cars.
I see them flying all the time around Ellington field. A most puzzling waste of money. Astronauts, by definition, travel beyond the atmosphere where flaps and ailerons are useless, and yet they're required to maintain something like 100 hours per month in the T-38 cockpit, which doesn't remotely resemble the shuttle flight deck or the Apollo capsule interior.
What part of the T-38 experience can an astronaut apply to spaceflight? The usual rationale is "it's a shuttle trainer", but it handles nothing at all like the shuttle, and besides, it's use predates the shuttle. NASA has been using it at least since the Gemini era - for what? The Gemini astronauts and most Apollo crew were already skilled fighter pilots.
I think it’s mainly overall flying skills maintenance.
Training often simulates mission activities or mindsets in correlative capacities.
Repetition itself is very powerful, especially of pilot awareness skills.
What part of the T-38 experience can an astronaut apply to spaceflight? The usual rationale is “it’s a shuttle trainer”, but it handles nothing at all like the shuttle, and besides, it’s use predates the shuttle.
...
I believe some of them were modified to handle just like the Shuttle.
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