T38 Fighter Jet - The Northrop T-38 was a great trainer when it entered service in the 1960s, but not for today's front-line fighters.
No one calls it a joke yet, but almost every day, U.S. Air Force fighter pilots and bombers flee into the sky for advanced pilot training on aircraft. This aircraft is no longer modern.
T38 Fighter Jet
The last Northrop T-38 Talon was built in 1972 when astronauts were still visiting the moon and the McDonnell F-4 Phantom was still the Air Force's superior air force fighter. The Air Force retired Phantoms 21 years ago. Meanwhile, Talon continued to fly.
Two Us Air Force (usaf) T 38 Talon Aircraft And A Usaf T 38b Tweet Aircraft Assigned To The 80th Tactical Fighter Wing (tfw), Air Education And Training Command (aetc) Fly A Three Ship
"Think of flying three times a day, and an average of four landings on it," said Colonel David Drrichta, head of flight training at the Air Force Training and Training College (AETC). "If this was a driving school, we would have bought a new car a long time ago." Modern, for example, where many of Drrichta's students graduated. Flying together. Pilots in training could not improve their aeronautical skills due to lack of hardware. They could not train. Much at night or invisible because the old T-38 circuit was designed before most fighters had such capabilities.
In early 2018, the Air Force aims to address the lack of training. It will reward contracts worth up to $ 16 billion to replace the remaining 431 T-38s with 350 new coaches named "T-X" until the official design. The formula is selected. If the plan works, the first two-seater aircraft will join the Air Force by the end of 2023, along with state-of-the-art ground simulators.
Four teams (about five) have submitted bids to build the T-X, and both are led by prominent players in the global military aircraft industry: Boeing in partnership with Sweden's Saab AG and Lockheed Martin in partnership with Korea Aerospace Industries Corporation. Some observers believe that the Italian company Leonardo (through its US subsidiary Leonardo DRS) has a good chance of winning the Air Force contract. The other two units in dispute - the ongoing one at Stavatti Aerospace and the small-scale contractor Sierra Nevada Corporation (with the Turkish aviation industry) - are considered to be long-range shooters. Although considered a potential candidate by the Parliamentary Research Service, Sierra Nevada has not publicly confirmed or refused to participate in the contest.
Todd Harrison, Military Budget Analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC. "While the $ 16 billion order will be a huge achievement for any company, neither Boeing nor Lockheed will rely on it," the company said. Harrison says and Stavatti T-X title "will be a big win".
Us Air Force, Northrop Grumman Celebrate 60 Years With The T 38 Talon Aircraft
Surprisingly, one giant airline that did not compete to replace the T-38 was its creator: Northrop Grumman. The company initially announced that it would partner with the UK-based BAE to distribute an updated version of the BAE Hawk T2, a new generation training aircraft from the 1970s. -45 Goshawk. ) But that plan was scrapped in favor of a "clean" design, especially for the T-X competition. In August 2016, a visitor to California's Mojave Air & Space Port, home to Northrop's Scaled Composites subsidiary, posted a picture of the unidentified aircraft on the Internet. It was Northrop's T-X model that was quietly designed and built - days after the photo was taken - raised. Immediately after investing the hefty amount required for the flight model, Northrop dropped the offer. The company issued a brief statement saying that further expansion of the project was not in the "best interests of the company and its shareholders" and that prototypes had not been seen since. (Northrop declined to comment for this article.)
Aviation analyst Richard Aboulafia sees the T-X competition as decided in the old-fashioned battle as the lowest bidder. In this sense, he said, Lockheed Martin and Leonardo could have an advantage, as their products were existing aircraft, the Korean-made T-50 Golden Eagle and the Italian-made 346 M-respectively. Boeing and Saab, meanwhile, have developed a completely new aircraft design that Aboulafia says will require development costs of between $ 1 million and $ 3 billion.
Four countries fly Leonardo's M-346 (T-100). With 30 aircraft, the Israeli Air Force has the largest fleet.
Two Boeing-Saab T-X models, the only "clean" design left, with a high chance of winning, fly regularly at St. Petersburg. Louis, Missouri, where they were gathered.
Air Force T 38 Trainer Jet Suffers Landing Gear Mishap; No Injuries Reported
The origins of the T-38 air force date back to the Eisenhower administration. In the mid-1950s, Northrop was developing the N-156, a twin-engine fighter capable of being used on small passenger ships in service at the time. Finally, when the Navy was abandoned (and all ancient World War II-class passenger ships retired), Northrop welcomed the Air Force on the market to replace the 1940 fighter jets. Named the Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star.
The first T-38 model was launched in March 1959. Two years later, the aircraft joined the Air Force, becoming the world's first supersonic speed trainer. When production was completed in 1972, nearly 1,200 T-38s rolled out of the assembly line. Northrop Grumman records show that more than 72,000 U.S. Air Force pilots recorded Talon hours.
Larry Hudson, Deputy Chief of Staff at Training Command, said the Air Force maintenance team is currently doing its best to keep the Talons, but keeping them in the air is an ongoing challenge. They suffered from landing gear fatigue, wear, instability and cracking in the longitudinal, the main structure that operated the length of the fuselage, helping to hold the T-38 cockpit in place.
To prolong service life, Talons aircraft have been upgraded over the years with some elements of the glass cabin. The aircraft is also equipped with new aluminum wings. But as the aircraft got older, the parts became harder and harder to find. As of 2011, less than 3 out of 4 were considered useful for purposes intended by the due date.
U.s. Air Force And U.s. Navy Have Completed Modifications On Their T 38cs
On the runway, it still looks like an inch hot stick. But the fact is that in terms of performance, the T-38 is pitifully lower than the F-15 and F-16, which most air force fighters carry forward. And can not be compared to the fourth and fifth generation fighters such as F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II; Pilots departing from a T-38 to switch to that type of aircraft must attend a temporary F-16 training course for exposure to new electronics and high-altitude G flights.
Yes, with engine fire, the General Electric J-85 T-38 can still reach Mach 1.3 (858 mph at 40,000 feet). And at 33,600 feet per minute, it can still climb like a bat from hell. But of the 18 advanced training missions that required the current Air Force pilots, Talon could only handle six.
"People often see 1950s cars still being driven in Cuba as an example of a stagnant economy," Drichta says. "The T-38 is the same age. The only vehicles driving around your neighborhood since then have had 'historic' license plates.
The new T-X will be at least 10% more efficient than the T-38, have better cold resistance, and can fly at night with the night-vision system built into the pilot's helmet. It will need fewer runways for takeoff on hot days and will be able to continue at 6.5 G at least 140 degrees, which the T-38's frame and wings do. It was never designed to do that. It will be able to refuel in the air like an airplane its students will fly. It will also come with data-linked, networked simulators.
T X Program
Boeing officials say they are confident that the training and simulation system they have built with partner Saab will exceed Air Force requirements. Their two-tailed goal is to design an exclusive "clean grid" for the T-X game. Two aircraft are manufactured and tested four times a day.
"There are many reasons why the Boeing T-X is the best choice," said Ted Torgerson, the company's T-X program manager. "We have designed the whole system together with aircraft, training and ground support from the ground up, providing effective handling. But better.
But Aboulafia analysts are skeptical. "I think it saves some cost, but I'm not sure how much and there are many other factors that determine the cost of the aircraft," he said.
If Boeing wins the contract, it will build a new training aircraft at its plant in St. Petersburg. Louis, Missouri
The T 38 Talon Finally Gets A Replacement
Lockheed Martin believes it has a competitive advantage, mainly due to the T-50's service record in other countries, as well as its design to mimic the F-35 in both flexibility and cabin appearance. Such acquaintance will allow for easier transitions as pilots transition from advanced aircraft training.
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