Quote:
Originally Posted by Llarry
In recognition of the stellar contributions of the T-38, here's some more information and a more recent photo.
-- 1,189 T-38As were produced from 1959 to 1972
-- T-38s were operated by a number of users, but presently there are about 500 in use by the USAF, 9 in use by the USN and 32 in use by NASA. Foreign users include Germany (operated in the US with USAF markings) and Turkey.
-- An important fighter aircraft, the Northrop F-5, was derived from the T-38 design and is in wide use: about 2,600 of those were built.
All in all, a major winner for Northrop.
And I did some elementary arithmetic on multiple generations flying the T-38; how about:
-- Great grandpa was winged in 1958 and was an experienced instructor when the T-38 first came along; he flew it in the 1960s.
-- His son (grandpa) was winged in 1983, flying the T-38.
-- His son or daughter (mom or dad) was winged in 2009, flying the T-38.
-- His or her daughter is now 14 years old and an excellent student who wants more than anything to be an Air Force pilot. Odds are she will fly the T-38 to get her wings.
That's four generations!
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Otherwise known as "The White Rocket", the T-38 is a sexy beast to fly-- Northrop *definitely* got that one right. It can go supersonic and after coming out of the T-37 (the "Tweet", mentioned a while back), it was a HUGE step up in performance (and ability to kill you).
A few fun facts:
- It was the world's first supersonic trainer and had performance better than many of the initial front-line fighters. Due to its "coke bottle" design, the jet can make about Mach 1.3 and handles like a dream due to the short, thin wings. You actually have to wear a g-suit when flying it (i.e. "speed jeans"). You really can't describe the feeling you get the first time you fly the jet-- the Tweet was fairly docile, subsonic, the cockpit was low to the ground, and you sat side-by-side with the instructor. On the -38, you sat high up in the tip of a very narrow cockpit with the instructor behind you. When you pushed the throttles into "Max AB" on takeoff, you'd watch two needles swing as the burner cans constricted. Then it was hold on to your arse, because you were accelerating down the runway FAST-- and it was a race to get the gear up before you oversped them. You had to climb out at 300 knots for performance reasons-- every other aircraft you would ever have flown to that point climbed at far less than that and was restricted to 250 knots below 10,000 feet. You could go from on the runway to 30,000' in something around just over a minute. Did I mention that it's a sexy beast?
- The roll rate was 720 degrees PER SECOND iirc. It was a prohibited maneuver, so of course every solo student pilot ever went out and did a few rolls once they were in the area and scared themselves spitless.
- It was fairly easy to stall it out when "rolling off the perch" (going opposite the direction of landing at about 1000', then doing a descending & slowing 180-degree turn towards the runway threshold) due to those thin wings. The solution was to install an Alpha (Angle of Attack) gauge visual display on the top of the glare shield-- it had two red chevrons, two yellow chevrons and a green doughnut in the middle. You'd "pull to the green" doughnut, which kept you flying-- if you pulled too hard and hit the red chevron (that was bad), the procedure was to roll the wings level, unload the jet and go to max afterburner. It that didn't work, it was time to take your chances ejecting.
- The older T-38's (the ones I flew) had a rocket ejection seat. It was an acceptable seat at the time, but had poor performance in the low-speed/low-altitude regime. I don't remember the exact numbers (it's been 34 years after all), but I do remember that if you got yourself in trouble (i.e. stalled) off the perch, the seat would fire you up at something like 4000' per minute. That was great, except that in a stall, the jet was going down at over 6000' per minute. In other words, you'd hit the ground even while the seat was trying to rocket you up. Sometime around 2010, they put in a Martin-Baker seat that had 0/0 capability-- that's saved about a dozen lives already.
- The AT-38B is a variant of the T-38. It could carry rockets, a gun or dummy bombs in a pod and was used to train pilots transitioning to fighter aircraft.
- In the early 2000's, the T-38 was given a glass cockpit (which must make navigation FAR easier) and a bunch of other upgrades. Better engine injectors, intakes, exhausts and several other upgrades to keep the jet viable.
- There used to be a -38 ACE (Accelerated Copilot Enrichment) program that allowed pilots from airframes that didn't get a lot of flying time to go out and keep their skills up. Mostly bombers, the U-2 and a few others. Being an ACE Instructor was a great (but dead-end) job-- you just flew around with qualified pilots, allowing them to maintain currency. The bombers were usually in... not so good locations, so ACE was a way to get out of town for a while. The T-38 had a range slightly more than 1000 miles, so you could head to the beach for a weekend without too much trouble.
- T-38's have been used as trainers, by NASA as chase aircraft, by the USAF Test Pilot school, as fighter lead-in and as the direct progenitor to the F-5 as a combat-operational aircraft. The F-5 also led to the development of the F-20 Tigershark-- the "best fighter that was never built." The Thunderbirds used to fly them as well-- until they tragically put four of them in the dirt. Eventually, they were replaced by the F-16's they fly today.
Northrop got this one right. I've never, EVER met someone who didn't love the White Rocket from their first ride. It could (and would) kill you if you weren't paying attention, but it was a hoot and a half to fly. You *definitely* knew you were in the "Big-Boy" program when you made it to this far in the UPT syllabus.
R.
PS: "Getting winged" is more of a Navy thing. In the USAF, you "get your wings". Minor detail, but there it is.
R.