North American T-28 Trojan: Difference between revisions
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==Other uses== |
==Other uses== |
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T-28s were also used by the [[CIA]] in the former [[Belgian Congo]] during the 1960s. France used locally re-manufactured Trojans for close support missions in [[Algeria]]; and the Philippines utilized T-28s (known as "Tora-toras"), during a series of |
T-28s were also used by the [[CIA]] in the former [[Belgian Congo]] during the 1960s. France used locally re-manufactured Trojans for close support missions in [[Algeria]]; and the Philippines utilized T-28s (known as "Tora-toras"), during a series of unsuccessful coups d’état during the 1980s, the aircraft were often deployed as [[dive bombers]] by rebel forces. |
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==Variants== |
==Variants== |
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Revision as of 16:50, 25 December 2009
- This refers to the aircraft. For other uses see T28.
| T-28 Trojan | |
|---|---|
| |
| T-28B Trojan | |
| Role | Trainer aircraft |
| Manufacturer | North American Aviation |
| First flight | 24 September 1949 |
| Primary users | United States Air Force United States Navy South Vietnamese Air Force Argentine Navy |
The North American Aviation T-28 Trojan was a piston-engined military trainer aircraft used by the United States Air Force and United States Navy beginning in the 1950s. Besides its use as a trainer, the T-28 was successfully employed as a Counter-insurgency (COIN) aircraft primarily in Vietnam.
Design and development
On 24 September 1949, the XT-28 (company designation NA-159) was flown for the first time, designed to replace the T-6 Texan. Found satisfactory, a contract was issued and between 1950 and 1957, a total of 1,948 were built.
Following the T-28's withdrawal from U.S. military service, a number were remanufactured by Hamilton Aircraft into two versions called the Nomair. The first refurbished machines, designated T-28R-1 were similar to the standard T-28s they were adapted from, and were supplied to the Brazilian Navy. Later, a more ambitious conversion was undertaken as the T-28R-2, which transformed the two-seat tandem aircraft into a five-seat cabin monoplane for general aviation use. Other civil conversions of ex-military T-28As were undertaken by PacAero as the Nomad Mark I and Nomad Mark II[1]
Operational history
After becoming adopted as a primary trainer by the USAF, the United States Navy and Marine Corps adopted it as well. Although the Air Force phased out the aircraft out of primary pilot training by the early 1960s, continuing use only for limited training of special operations aircrews and for primary training of select foreign military personnel, the aircraft continued to be used as a primary trainer by the Navy (and by default, the Marine Corps and Coast Guard) well into the early 1980s.
The largest single concentration of this aircraft was employed by the U.S. Navy at NAS Whiting Field in Milton, Florida in the training of student naval aviators. The T-28's service career in the U.S. military ended with the completion of the phase in of the T-34C turboprop trainer. The last U.S. Navy training squadron to fly the T-28 was VT-27, based at NAS Corpus Cristi, Texas, flying the last T-28 training flight in early 1984. Many T-28s were subsequently sold to private civil operators, and due to their reasonable operating costs are often found flying as warbirds today.
Vietnam War
In 1963, a Laotian Air Force T-28 piloted by Lieutenant Chert Saibory, a Thai national, defected to North Vietnam. Saibory was immediately imprisoned and his aircraft was impounded. Within six months the T-28 was refurbished and commissioned into the North Vietnamese Air Force as its first fighter aircraft.[2]
T-28s were supplied to the South Vietnamese Air Force in support of ARVN ground operations, seeing extensive service during the Vietnam War in VNAF hands, as well as the Secret War in Laos. The T-28 Trojan was the first US fixed wing attack aircraft (non-transport type) lost in South Vietnam, during the Vietnam War. Capt. Robert L. Simpson, USAF, Detachment 2A, lst Air Commando Group, and Lt. Hoa, SVNAF, were shot down by ground fire on 28 August 1962 while flying Close Air Support (CAS). Neither crewman survived. The USAF lost 23 T-28s to all causes during the war, with the last two losses occurring in 1968.[3]
Other uses
T-28s were also used by the CIA in the former Belgian Congo during the 1960s. France used locally re-manufactured Trojans for close support missions in Algeria; and the Philippines utilized T-28s (known as "Tora-toras"), during a series of unsuccessful coups d’état during the 1980s, the aircraft were often deployed as dive bombers by rebel forces.
Variants
- XT-28
- Prototype, 2 built.
- T-28A
- US Air Force version with an 800 hp (597 kW) Wright R-1300-7 radial engine, 1,194 built.
- T-28B
- US Navy version with 1,425 hp (1,063 kW) Wright R-1820-9 radial engine, 3-blade propeller, belly mounted speed brake, 489 built.
- T-28C
- US Navy version, a T-28B with shortened propeller blade and tailhook for carrier landing training, 266 built.
- T-28D Nomad
- T-28As converted for the counter insurgency (COIN) role. Re-engined as per the T-28B and C, and fitted with six underwing hardpoints. Total 393 converted - 321 by NAA, plus 72 by Fairchild Hiller.
- AT-28D
- T-28Ds used for attack training by the USAF.
- Fennec
- Ex-USAF T-28As refurbished and modified by Sud-Aviation in France
- T-28R-1 Nomair
- Ex-USAF T-28s refurbished for Brazilian Navy
- T-28R-2 Nomair
- Ex-USAF T-28s converted into general aviation aircraft
- Nomad Mark I
- Ex-USAF T-28As refurbished for civil use by PacAero with Wright R-1820-56S engines [1]
- Nomad Mark II
- Ex-USAF T-28As refurbished for civil use by PacAero with Wright R-1820-76A engines [1]
Operators
Survivors
Many T-28s are on display throughout the world. In addition, a considerable number of flyable examples exist in private ownership, as the aircraft is a popular sport plane and warbird.
- T-28A (JT-28A) (s/n 49-1494) is on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. The aircraft is painted as a typical Air Training Command T-28A of the mid-1950s. It was transferred to the museum in September 1965. It is on display in the museum's Cold War gallery.[5]
- T-28B (BuNo 140048) is on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. It is painted as a VNAF T-28B assigned to Bien Hoa Air Base in 1962, where USAF pilots trained and flew combat missions with VNAF crews in Operation Farm Gate. It was flown to the museum in March 1987 and is displayed in the Museum's Modern Flight gallery.
- T-28 on display at the Temora Aviation Museum in Australia and is flown on flying display days that the museum holds every few months.[6]
- T-28B (BuNo 529263) is on display aboard the museum ship USS Hornet (CV-12) in Alameda, California. This aircraft is painted in Air Training Command yellow, with the green markings of an instrument trainer.[7]
Specifications (T-28D)
General characteristics
- Crew: Two
Performance
Armament
- 2 or 6 × wing-mounted pylons capable of carrying bombs, napalm, rockets. machine gun pods containing .30 in (7.62 mm) (training), .50 in (D-model) or twin pods with .50 in (12.7 mm) and 20 mm (.79 in) cannon (Fennec)
See also
Related development
Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era
References
- Notes
- ^ a b c The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft 1985, p. 2678.
- ^ Toperczer 2001, pp. 8–9.
- ^ Hobson, Chris. Vietnam Air Losses, USAF/Navy/Marine, Fixed Wing Aircraft Losses in Southeast 1961-1973. North Branch, Minnesota: Specialty Press, 2001. ISBN 1-8578-0115-6.
- ^ "Air Force Aircraft Fleet." Aeromilitaria, April 2009. Retrieved: 25 July 2009.
- ^ United States Air Force Museum 1975, p. 81.
- ^ "Flying Day Information." Temora Aviation Museum, 2009. Retrieved: 25 July 2009.
- ^ Lubich, Dwight. "T-28B Trojan." USS Hornet Museum, 2008. Retrieved: 25 July 2009.
- Bibliography
- Avery, Norm. North American Aircraft: 1934-1998 Volume 1. Santa Ana, CA: Narkiewicz-Thompson, 1998. ISBN 0-91332-205-9.
- The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft (Part Work 1982-1985). London: Orbis Publishing, 1985.
- Thompson, Kevin. North American Aircraft: 1934-1998 Volume 2. Santa Ana, CA: Narkiewicz-Thompson, 1999. ISBN 0-913322-06-7.
- Toperczer, Istvan. MiG-17 and MiG-19 Units of the Vietnam War. London: Osprey Publishing Limited, 2001. ISBN 1-84176-162-1.
- United States Air Force Museum guidebook. Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio: Air Force Museum Foundation, 1975.
External links
