Posted on 02/14/2011 11:44:08 AM PST by sukhoi-30mki
T-38 is one beautiful ship.
It would be cool if the Aermacchi would win. It’s a soviet design by Yakolew (Yak-130). That would mark the absolute end of the cold war.
Always loved that plane. The T-50 is a beastie too.
This article is making me feel old. I trained in the T-38 and instructed in it for 4 years. It’s a beautiful ship. Lots of good memories.
T-38? What happened to the T-33? Dammit, no one tells me anything anymore!
If our tax dollars are buying it I still believe it should be made here.
You may rest assured that the most expensive option woill be chosen. Regardless of the chosen design's origins, it will be built here.
He'd go wheels up about ten feet off the runway, gain full thrust, and after about six thousand feet down the runway would make a right angle vertical climb like a pocket rocket, with rolls as he climbed to around 10,000 feet, which took about one minute.
Normally there are speed limits in that kind of airspace, but everyone needs a thrill now and then.
I got an orientation ride in one when I was a unit SJA. An hour of aerobatics (came back with both bags dry, thankyouverymuch!) gave me an entirely new appreciation for why fighter pilots are so self-confident. It took me 20 minutes to get out of the flight suit - I just kept sitting back down on the bench to recover.
Colonel, USAFR
General Chuck Yeagar loved the fighter version of the T-38, the F-5 Tigershark.
One retired USAF AMC / American airlines pilot told me the T-38 and the C-5 were his favorite airframes.
I have a picture of myself back in 1979 sitting inside a T-38. My mother got to fly in a T-33 back in 1962. I recently took a picture of her standing next to it at the Travis AFB museum!
You’re lucky as a Staff Judge Advocate you weren’t thrown out of that airplane! Ha ahahaha!
But the Hawk has engine and some airframe commonality with the Navy T-45 Goshawk, so there is a case to be made for it as well.
I can't believe that the Alenia T-100 is subsonic with that much thrust (12,500 lbs according to the chart.)
General Yeager was a paid spokesman for the F-20 Tigershark. The F-20 was an F-5 re-engined with a single F404, and was aimed at the export market. Once F-16s were approved for export sale, nobody wanted the F-20.
I had a death grip on my IP’s helmet.
Colonel, USAFR
There is a T-38 sitting wheels-up on Runway 22 at Ellington Field in Houston, TX today. Wasn’t there when I went home from work on Friday, but saw the thing this morning when the fog rolled away. Guess someone had an exciting weekend.
If the AF just needs to ditch a few T-38s I have a hanger for one. Just sayin’.
The F-20 was a single engine variant that was intended to be an entry in what ended up as the flyoff between the YF-16 and YF-17. The F-20 was christened the "Tigershark" by Northrop for marketing purposes.
Gen Yeager liked the F-20 but he was also acting as a representative of Northrop to sell it.
Of course it was a Sunday afternoon and the base golf course was in that area, so it wasn't five minutes before our phone rang with some general demanding to know the name of the pilot.
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