Flew a fresh 38 that smelled like a new car in 1970 at UPT. It had fewer than 100 hours on it and was a very smooth flyer. As I recall the roll rate was about 720 degrees per second. Never liked flying with the new Lt instructors, their hands were always touching the stick. The post Nam Thud drivers and Hun drivers taught you to be a fighter pilot and were great fun to fly with.
The post Nam Thud and Hun drivers were as rare as white Buffalo. I had a B-52 A/C commander. Still learned a lot, but there was no Fighter Pilot Mystique in that guy.
Thuds first fighter aircraft designed to carry nukes- went "thud" when engine went out made great wild weasels. Replaced by F4's. Hanoi Hilton had lots of Thud pilots.
@@fishon7301 I had flight at PIT with an old behind the liner who not only had a hold on the stick, but had his feet on the rudder pedals. I discovered this on takeoff roll and I very forcefully and angrily told him to get off the rudders and stick. I was a butter bar of course and I believe he was an LC, because he seemed quite old - ha. He did and we had a great flight. I do not recall his even mentioning it during the debrief. I never rode the controls with a student but my hands were much less than an inch from them in the pattern near the ground and in fingertip. I never coached with my hands either. Change of control was positive, both verbal and physical. After I left Willy I heard they lost a jet at altitude over a change of control issue, but I do not remember the details.
At 3:16 "Ahh the smell of unburnt jet fuel" was priceless! It was like you were smelling the perfume of a long lost lover! Which this T-38 was apparently! Thanks for the tour Juan!
I, too, love the smell of JP-4. It surfaces many recollections. Like warming my hands at the aft end of a just landed T-38 on the frozen ramp at Vance.
Aerospace engineer here... Nice video! One correction though on the supersonic barrier and the stabilizer issue. It was not Chuck Jaeger or an American invention at that, but it was the British that actually figured out how to use the stabilizer to get rid of the supersonic vibrations. The British and American governments at the time had agreed to a knowledge-sharing pact in aircraft development as both countries were pioneering in this field. Unfortunately, the Americans never upheld their end of the bargain where the British happily shared their 'inventions' with their partners in the West. As a consequence, the American experimental aircraft were the first to start exploring supersonic flights. Fun fact, it's the truth... Keep up the good work, Juan! Greetz from Amsterdam xxx
Reminds me of the wartime nukes deal which the US reneged on circa 1946. My friend's brother got major radiation sickness from the Maralinga tests in Australia because the Poms had to go it alone. Also in mind is the NB-36 nuclear powered bomber; I'd love to see a walk-around of that!
Yep, it was the Miles M52 development that was shared with the Americas in an exchange agreement, that was then reneged on by the U.S. "Special relationship" pffff!
Love it! The guy flies jets for a living day in and day out, but still gets excited about them! I wish we could have heard a lot more from the captain about her experience flying these.
I saw the Thunderbirds back in the 70s when they flew T-38s. Thank goodness they had smoke trails because it was hard trying to spot those quick little darts!
I can remember back around 1990 when a space shuttle pilot had flown a NASA T-38 into the Ontario International airport in southern California, where I worked at the time for Ontario Aircraft Service / OAS. He was parked at the private aircraft terminal on the south side of the airport and requested an air start to get his aircraft started. I arrived at the terminal with the air start unit and found him inside of the terminal (I wish that I had asked him his name) but I found him handing out little plastic space shuttle's that he was handing out from the pocket of his flight suit to the ladies that worked at the terminal, saying that he had carried them into space with him. I wasn't able to get a space shuttle from him, but a person I was with asked him if he could go out with his after burners on, he said he would ask the tower and see if they would let him as he was taxiing out. We got him started up and as we were driving back around the runways to the north side of the airport, he took off heading west into the sunset, it was around 7pm with the sun going down. We stopped to watch him as he was heading down the runway, at about halfway down the runway he raised his airplane off of the runway just enough to get his landing gear up and turned on his after burners and it was an amazing sight as he launched out of there with the fire of his after burners behind him heading off into the sunset. I wish that we had cellphones back then, so I could have captured the moment, but it was truly an amazing sight to see👍🙂
Love that jet! T-38 FAIP, 88-91.Tons of pure fun flying. Many of us took the early out in ‘91 with the big drawdown after gulf war 1. Lots of high quality flying turned out to be perfect airline lead in 😀
Hi Juan! Great weather for race week. Your post yesterday at the back stretch pylon was awesome! I went to Laughlin AFB, class 87-04. We started with 66 students in two sections, had four wash backs from senior classes, and eventually graduated 44 qualified pilots. Not including the wash backs, we had a 40% wash out rate, and the T-38 was the culprit in many cases. Virtually every student in our class had their week in the 'barrel'. As you remember, it only took 3 bad days and you'd be out. My eldest son, Alex, graduated in May from Vance AFB. He's up at Altus, going through KC-135 school. Cheers!
About this 3 mistake rule, are we talking you messed up the landing a bit and that’s the first strike? Or the entire lesson you didn’t preform to the standard of the curriculum? Any former UPT grads want to fill me in on this?
Reese 85-05, Sheppard T-38 IP 1996-2000, Randolph PIT IP 2001-2004. I love the T-38! Thanks for stirring up the memories, I was surprised they still have the A model, I flew one of the last on the line at Randolph in 2004 when AETC went to the C.
T-38 Engine troop Randolph civilian 1996-2000. Removed the whole Training Wings engines and retrimmed in Test Cell and rerigged. Used to come in to work at 5 AM and I ran about 12 Aircraft a day. Spent around an hour and a half in the engine changing out a Flameholder (once as I am 6ft tall)- my arms ached for days working overhead hand- I was a Minor Celebrity after that! Cheers All
In 1970 I copied a page with a T-38 cockpit from a book…I was in junior high. I mounted it on cardboard and carried it to class every day so that I could memorize the cockpit. Sadly, I never got to fly it, but my son did at Vance in UPT. The UPT jets are all “C” models now with glass cockpits. They no longer do the boom ride…no more supersonic flights. I did fly the sim at Vance at his graduation. Loved it.
That’s awesome! My mom worked for Northrop back in the day -always had some swag. I grew up in Quincy, CA,; my dad and I would frequent the Reno Air Races. Pretty cool! Big thanks for what you do!
Did I see that aircraft didn’t have the modified throttle gate? I thought they all had that? Kept the stud from inadvertently shutting down engines, and was only in the front seat so prevented the ip from being able to shut one down at all. We used to joke that the windscreen between the back and front seat saved many a students lives, “cause if I could have reached up there and strangled you I would have”😂😂😂 That light was a position light, the formation lights were strip lights molded into the skin. Congrats to the young lady on the U2! Pioneered by the first woman u2 pilot from Willy back in my day. Won’t mention her name for obvious reasons, but an awesome pilot! Nice to see Pete there in the middle of things.
I did a lot, normally 500 shots per phase of NDT x-rays on the wings, the flight controls, intake tubes and cockpit latches while visiting Holloman AFB, 49th FW (HMN) New Mexico. Thanks for the tour, gets me a little misty eyed seeing this.
Here you go again bringing back so many memories of flying the T-38 as an IP. And had the good fortune of delivering a brand new F-5 from Sacramento to Morocco which was quite a nice gig. Thanks for your great coverage at the Reno Air Races!
@@jcheck6 Flew it first to Williams AFB where we had just checked out in the F-5 ... had to learn how to use fuel out of the belly tank. Then on to Tulsa where we met an FAA crew flying a C-130 whom we met up with in Greenland. From there to somewhere in the mid west then finally to Bangor. Then on to Newfound, then across to Greenland. We were stuck there waiting for our other two wingman (from Norway) cuz they had messed up their tires landing at Bangor. We got a ride on the Ski 130 out to deliver supplies to a DIE site and landed on snow at 7500 MSL and -68F. Never shut off the engines, and we were delivered BLT sandwiches! Then finally to Iceland, Scotland, Germany, Spain, and to the airbase at Morocco. What a great boondoggle!!! Cheers.
@@bsjcook Wow, that is impressive BS! I was at Willie for UPT '72-'73 when I met Bob Hoover at the O'Club lunch line. He was there to check out in the F-5E to demo it at the Paris Airshow. Always wanted to fly the F-5, ended up flying RF-4C's.
@@jcheck6 OK, but it isn't BS it's FS (flying stuff). I was in class of 68F at Webb AFB, and that trip took close to 20 days. I never met Bob Hoover but was a big fan. I had close to 700 hrs when I left college and was able to choose the T-38 and stayed at Webb for the next 4.5 years. Then started with Delta 9-4-72. I really enjoy following Juan because of our similar careers. Are you still flying?
I worked avionics on the T-38 and F-5 with the contractor Dynalectron Corp (now Dyncorp) back in the 1970's and with Boeing on the avionics upgrade of T-38's in 2005. I always liked Northrup, that F-5 was a real hot rod. Pure politics prevented the F-20 Tigershark from being adopted and I always thought that was a big mistake.
@@texas0bserver729 Will they go public? Land Air, Dynalectron and Dyncorp were always a private entity. I guess they didn't want the scrutiny of the FTC.
I got a good laugh out of you smelling the jet fuel in the exhaust. It made me think of “I love the smell of napalm in the morning. It smells like victory.”
Pretty cool . I used to see T 37 's and T 38's night and day , when I worked on Craig AFB Ala. After we left , and it closed . Didn't see but a few , until I worked at GAFB Ca. Always loved the look of those planes ! Great reporting on this bird !
I went through UPT at Craig in '70. Six months of that year spent flying the beautiful Talon. 30 or 35 years later, I landed there in a small prop plane. There were weeds growing up out of the cracks in the runways.
In 1967, following tech school, I went to an ATC base and was assigned to the Singer-Link T38 intrument flight trainer. Fun thing to fly. Some of the instruments (HSI & ADI to name a couple) were actual aircraft instruments that were stimulated, not simulated. Vacuum tube based computer system and motor/generator provided power to run the whole thing.
I remember watching a T-38 take off early one morning as I was working on the ramp. It caught my attention as it sounded just a bit different that morning.. Low and behold, the rear canopy was up and doing a darn good job acting as a speed brake.. To the pilots credit, he kept it straight and level at about 50' off the desert floor until the canopy finally ripped off and in the process took off the top of the vertical, above the rudder. The pilot was able to save the aircraft and return to base, but I'm sure the cockpit likely had a new aroma after that..
I noticed the lenticular clouds this morning. Pretty good indication in was going to be a windy day and it was. I wanted to say hi Juan but it was too windy to search for you, Thanks for the reports! A Patreon supporter.
1971, we still did no flap overhead single engine heavy weight landings, later they decided a straight in was safer….at Reese we only had one aircraft with AOA during that time…of course I was only 22, now I’m 72
If l remember correctly we entered initial at 280 kn, pitched half way down the runway, slowing to 155 kn + fuel ( 1 kn for every 100 lbs of fuel over 1000), dropped gear and flaps, turn to final reducing speed to 132 + fuel over the barrier, touch down at about 115 - 120 knts, then used aerodynamic braking until the nose wheel touched down. The aircraft we were using had an integrated flight director, fire control system and much different panel layout.
This a great series of videos. You have definitely piqued my interest in the Reno Air Races. Never paid much attention to it before but hearing the unlimiteds rounding the pylons up close was AWESOME.👏👏👏. BTW what’s with the bank index scale on the T38 stand-by ADI?
The first sonic boom I ever heard was in the early 1960s, at my grandparents' house. They lived about 30 miles from Columbus AFB. Was that a T-38? I don't know. My college roommate's dad was a pilot out of Columbus. Captain, later Major, Jordan did two tours in Nam. Did he fly T-38s? Again, I don't know. Long ago and far away. I only know that I was the only girl in the dorm with a picture of the A-7 Corsair on her wall. My boyfriend helped to work on it while on coop at LTV. He was in aerospace engineering and going through AFROTC. His family lived in Columbus. Good people. I still miss them to this day. So, they put USAF blood in my veins, and I went on to work as a civilian editor at AF Publications at Bolling AFB. Good days!
Thanks for the tour. Black really does show off any flaws, car or plane. A couple corrections. You're about an order of magnitude off on the thrust. It's about 3000 lbs each under burner. 2000 full military power. Also, the Talon will do supersonic in level flight. I think its just more fuel efficient to break through transonic in a dive.
T-38s as astronaut proficiency & transport carried through the space shuttle program's end. I worked at Daytona Beach and we had a few astronauts fly in and remain overnight or for a re-fuel. They always carried the tiny cargo pod under the fuselage. The T-38s needed a huffer cart, which almost no other visiting aircraft needed. We had to fuel the tanks in proper sequence to avoid tipping on the landing gear.
Shuttle Mission Specialist Mike Massimino has some great reminiscences about the T-38 in his biography "Spaceman", regarding basic proficiency flights and hitching lifts around the country whenever anyone in the program happened to be flying one in vaguely the right direction to where he needed to go. Great book, highly recommended reading. Also available as an ebook on Audible, narrated by Mike himself.
9:50 No Juan, NOT Chuck Yeager. Miles Aircraft Ltd., the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE at Farnborough, UK) and the National Physical Laboratory (Bushy House in Teddington, UK ) developed the 'stabilator' or 'all flying tailplane' for the transonic/supersonic Miles M.52 design, research for which was shared with the US in the closing stages of WW2. Still love your work, though.
just a little off on the thrust, Power Plant: Two General Electric J85-GE-5 turbojet engines with afterburners Thrust: 2,050 pounds dry thrust; 2,900 with afterburners
The AOA system was added sometime after 72. When it was first added, we really never trusted it because in part, we didn’t understand it. The throttles head finger lifts that you had to raise in order to shut off the engines so a gross overshoot and throttles snapped to idle did not cut the engines off. Although. I did see an IP shut the engines off in last change at PIT doing T-Bird ground ops.
For some of the ordinary people like me that watch you, I wish you would throw in some miles per hour sometime because we cannot compute knots in our head. Thanks and always a thumbs up👍👌🤗😀
I got one G-whiz ride in a T-38 out of Laughlin in Del Rio. ROTC summer camp. Slated for physical 1977 pilot training. Then the fuel shorted. 924 of us got riffed.
Gotta wonder about the wrinkles on the aft fuselage. Flew 555, queen of the fleet and not a "jig" bird at IP training in the early 70's. Had to add 10 knots for every maneuver and the benign wing rock stall would go inverted right away. Beale might be adding some numbers to that birds perf numbers for mama and the kids.
The all moving tail was the British solution to the Mach Tuck problem (movement of pressure due to the shock wave over the elevator) that was key to enabling the Bell X1 (which originally had a convention tail) to break the sound barrier.
Juan, these T-38's fly over my house daily out of BB as "ROPERXX" and shoot lots of approaches at MHR and sometimes SMF while tooling around the BAFB. Very cool. They are little bullets as they go over. Most of the time cruising around here at 300kts.
Crewed 38's at Reese AFB for 3 years. Nice tour. Had two incentive rides fun jet. Don't like them painted black. They are called the white rocket! Great jet to crew.
That AOA was added after 69-05, or I spent all those hours in the airplane and didn't notice it! Like everyone commenting here, we loved it, especially after getting out of the 6600 pound dog-whistle. Most of our instructors were returning Vietnam guys, and the patch that got everyone's attention and admiration was that beautiful red, white and blue shield; "100 Missions - North Vietnam - F105D. In my humble opinion, the most difficult and dangerous flying job in the Vietnam theater.
- 3,000 lbs of thrust x 2 in burner. - 2,000 lbs x 2 in Mil - As far as supersonic top speed, the reason the 38 is limited to 1.15M or so, is the convergent nozzles can't accelerate air faster than Mach 1.0, but since the air temperature is higher inside the engine, Mach 1.0 is a little higher too. So even a simple convergent nozzle can push the jet a little above Mach 1.0 measured in the ambient air. - The lines on the G meter are for full fuel and near empty, not for symmetric and asymmetric which is limited to just over 4 rolling Gs worst case. - The area rule fuselage is to keep over all air displaced by the jet minimized, so you squeeze the fuse a little where the wings would otherwise displace more air. It helps cap drag when supersonic because it helps cap drag all the time. - The reason the stick feels heavier when supersonic is that the center of lift moves aft, making the CG position feel more nose heavy even though the CG doesn't change. - She is why we make student pilots to go through PA. Its not that PA knows anything either, but it makes it harder for her to talk.
I got to take a ride in the T-38 sim at a Willie ( now Chandler Gateway ) back in the 90's as part of a GA open house at the airbase. Awesome fun, but I was so far behind the aircraft I'm sure the IP thought I was sitting behind him by a couple hundred yards.
T-38, F-5 F-17 and first F-18 all originally designed, developed and manufactured by Northrop Aircraft . Navy wanted the F-18 for carrier duty. Northrop then had to turn most of the F-18 manufacturing over the McDonnell Douglas who had the sea duty experience. Boeing F-18 center fuselage is manufacture by Northrop.
My pilot pals and I, 40 years ago used the phrase "green donut" when one of the others was impressing a young lady with his "stuf". Mostly vector down...
Although only a prototype / model, I think the Miles M.52 was the first to do the stabilator to achieve hypersonic. Ze Germans had been working on various similar projects so we were on alert that they could launch an invasion before we could get the kettle on. I remember seeing a docu over this side of the pond about how we traded off a heap of military research to get your Manhattan research. We abandoned our project and ended up with hovering fighter jets ...... go figure! Absolutely no disrespect intended to Chuck and the X-1 team, that's an exceptional plane, crew and design team and a truly historical [EDIT: I meant historic!! ] achievement. Besides, one pair of stabilators isn't all you'll need to make a boom boom.
There was one that pulled a few g’s over my place in Penn Valley a few days ago. Pretty low and fast, it sounded like the sky was being ripped and then he was gone.
@@bja2024 "by feel". Yes we all learned aero and performance numbers but that jet did bring out an ability to feel what the bird was doing. As an IP on a mobile stint I saw a solo stud roll out on final from an overhead with no flaps (when we still did overhead dual no flaps) and he was so locked in he ignored go around calls and landed. Had to pink him but he definitely was flying that bird by feel to survive a final turn without flaps. But that bird did not need 10,000 feet to loop. I've done 2,500 foot 250KIAS AB loops. You need to do them from the back seat though so you can use that flap control to milk 45 degree flaps out and back in.
A moot point, Chuck just verified stabilator dynamics he did not invent it. It was developed in the fog of jet aircraft design during and after WW2 by the British- Miles M.52 aircraft Which was cancelled mysteriously by British and picked up by USA and used by NACA. Sir Frank Whittle resigned as a result of this decision. Wing chord thickness on 38 can be topic of another discussion. I believe there is another post confirming this. You caught thrust ~ 2,900 pounds each at full AB, ( J85 -GE - 5). We had two on C123, J85's for supplemental power. You may recall 2019 crash of T38 Vance AFB due to breaking maneuver in training.
