Summary
- The Northrop T-38 Talon, a 65-year-old training aircraft, has been crucial in preparing US Air Force and Navy pilots for frontline fighter jets.
- The T-38 was the world's first supersonic trainer and has produced over 72,000 pilots since 1961, including NASA astronauts.
- The aircraft's longevity is due to ongoing upgrades and modifications, already exceeding earlier expectations of extending its service life to 2020.
Mea culpa, mea culpa. mea maxima culpa. In my three months on the Simple Flying writing team (time is fun when you're having flies...or is it the other way around?), I've made reference to multiple aircraft that have faithfully served in the US Armed Forces for 50+ years, from the B-52 Stratofortress to the KC-135 Stratotanker to the C-130 Hercules to the A-10 Warthog.
Oh yeah, not to mention, the sleek F-15 Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon are both 50somethings in terms of maiden flight years if not official operational service anniversaries. However, it has dawned upon me that this entire time I've been overlooking another warbird that belongs in that same small fraternity, and I probably overlooked it because it's a training aircraft as opposed to a "battlefield" aircraft.
That training aircraft in question is the Northrop T-38 Talon. And though it may not get the glory garnered by the aforementioned planes that actually get to fly into overseas war zones, the fact is that if it weren't for the Talon's 65 years of faithful service (63 years if you wish to nitpick operational service debut as opposed to the prototype maiden flight, which is still pretty goshdarn impressive) to the US Air Force and US Navy, the pilots of a lot of those planes would have never been qualified to deploy in the first place. Simple Flying now gives the T-38 its proper moment in the spotlight and explores some fascinating facts about the venerable training platform.
Photo: U.S. Department of Defense
Born during the Eisenhower Administration...
More specifically, the plane made its maiden flight on April 10, 1959, the penultimate year of the "I Like Ike" era. To put that in historical context, the Soviets had launched Sputnik into space 18 months prior, Elvis Aaron Presley (the King of Rock 'n' Roll) was in the middle of his US Army career, and the Soviet shootdown of Francis Gary Powers U-2 spy plane was still 13 months away.
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But the genesis of the T-38 actually goes back to the first year of the Dwight David Eisenhower Administration, 1953. Long story short, that was the year that then-Northrop Aviation decided to start developing a true lightweight fighter. As Frank Ayers elaborates in a December 2023 article for Plane & Pilot:
"The airplane that emerged, designated the N-156, set the design for the more than 2,500 F-5 'Freedom Fighters' that would serve for nearly six decades with air forces around the world."
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"The subsequent airplane, the T-38A Talon—bereft of the F-5’s armaments, hardpoints, and war paint—featured a slightly lengthened nose section, gleaming white paint, and a tandem canopy. These modifications turned the relatively stubby F-5 into a graceful beauty, often dubbed the 'White Rocket.' These good looks were matched by the Talon’s stunning performance. In 1962, a T-38A wrested the 3,000-, 6,000-, 9,000-, and 12,000-meter records for absolute time to climb from the significantly more powerful F-104 Starfighter."
Coming of age under the JFK Administration
It was under Ike's successor that the Talon was introduced into USAF service, on St. Patrick's Day 1961 (how apropos for the Administration of America's first Irish-Catholic President, aye?). In the process, the T-38 became the world's first supersonic trainer.
As far as I can ascertain, the USN adopted the T-38 sometime that same year, as the NAVAIR official info page lists 1961 as the "Date Deployed."
Out of production for over 50 years
Northrop produced 1,189 T-38s from 1961 to 1972. That's correct, the plane went out of production the same year that the F-15 made its maiden flight. Yet all these years later, the Talon airframes are still going strong, a true testament to the soundness of the plane's design and the workmanship of the men and women who built it.
The Northrup Corporation became Northrup Grumman via its merger with the Grumman Corporation in 1994, i.e. 22 years after T-38 production officially ceased.
A proud legacy of combat-ready pilots
"The proof is in the pudding," as the saying goes. The effectiveness of the T-38 as a pilot trainer is demonstrated by the combat-proven platforms that its graduates have gone on to fly. According to the ever-handy official USAF Fact Sheets:
"Air Education and Training Command uses the T-38C to prepare pilots for front-line fighter and bomber aircraft such as the F-15E Strike Eagle, F-15C Eagle, F-16 Fighting Falcon, B-1B Lancer, A-10 Thunderbolt and F-22 Raptor."
Indeed, according to Airforce Technology, more than 72,000 USAF pilots have cut their teeth on the T-38 since 1961! Moreover, as the aforementioned Mr. Ayers notes, the T-38 is such a forgiving aircraft that it allows green young USAF Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT) students, with barely more than 100 hours of flight time in their logbooks, to solo in it in just 10 to 12 hours.
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As to how the T-38 has remained in service after all this time, we go back to the USAF Fact Sheets:
"As the T-38 fleet has aged, specific airframe, engine and system components have been modified or replaced. Pacer Classic is the name given to a sustainment program that integrates essential modifications, and includes major structural replacements into one process."
Photo:US Air Force/Tech. Sgt. Bill Thompson | California Science Center
"AETC [Air Education and Training Command] began receiving T-38C models in 2001 as part of the Avionics Upgrade Program. T-38C models will also undergo a propulsion modernization program which replaces major engine components to enhance reliability and maintainability, and an engine inlet/injector modification to increase available takeoff thrust. These upgrades and modifications, with the Pacer Classic program, should extend the service life of T-38s to 2020."
Incidentally, that Fact Sheet was last updated back in 2014, hence the reference to the year 2020 as a future date. As of December 2022, the USAF still had 497 T-38s in service, and the USN still had nine Talons.
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The choice of NASA
The Talon isn't just for USAF FNGs (****ing New Guys/Gals). No less than NASA has deemed the T-38 useful to its mission needs as well. The space agency has 32 of the planes in its fleet, employing them for astronaut training and as a chase plane. In addition, with the advent of the Space Shuttle era, the agency established a tradition wherein astronauts would arrive at the Kennedy Space Center in T-38 Talons. As reported in a May 2024 Wonderwall article (republished on MSN), that same tradition was passed onto the first crewed Starliner mission.
