The North American Aviation T-28 Trojan is 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 aircraft, primarily during the Vietnam War. It has continued in civilian use as an aerobatics and Warbird performer.
North american t 28 trojans flying at culpeper air fest 2014
Design and development
On September 24, 1949, the XT-28 (company designation NA-159) was flown for the first time, designed to replace the T-6 Texan. The T-28A arrived at the Air Proving Ground, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, in mid-June 1950, for suitability tests as an advanced trainer by the 3200th Fighter Test Squadron, with consideration given to its transition, instrument, and gunnery capabilities. 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
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 from 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 Naval Air Station 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-34Cturboprop trainer. The last U.S. Navy training squadron to fly the T-28 was VT-27 “Boomers”, based at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas, flying the last T-28 training flight in early 1984. The last T-28 in the Training Command, BuNo 137796, departed for Naval District Washington on 14 March 1984 to be displayed permanently at Naval Support Facility Anacostia, D.C.
Vietnam War combat
In 1963, a Royal Lao 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.
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. A 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 August 28, 1962 while flying close air support. Neither crewman survived. The USAF lost 23 T-28s to all causes during the war, with the last two losses occurring in 1968.
Other combat uses
T-28s were used by the CIA in the former Belgian Congo during the 1960s.
France's Armée de l'Air used locally re-manufactured Trojans for close support missions in Algeria.
The Philippines utilized T-28s (colloquially known as "Tora-toras") during the 1989 Philippine coup attempt. The aircraft were often deployed as dive bombers by rebel forces.
Civilian use
AeroVironment modified and armored a T-28A to fly weather research for South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, funded by the National Science Foundation, and operated in this capacity from 1969 to 2005. SDSM&T is currently planning to replace it with another modified, but more modern, former military aircraft, specifically a Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II.
Aerobatics and warbird display
Many retired T-28s were subsequently sold to private civil operators, and due to their reasonable operating costs are often found flying or displayed as warbirds today.
The Trojan Phlyers are a two ship formation flying team from the Dallas, Texas area using T-28 Trojan aircraft. They have been performing at air shows since 1995 and the aircraft bear the markings of the US Air Force and the US Marine Corps. The pilots are Col. Chip Lamb (USAF Ret.), who flew the F-4 Phantom II and later flew F-16 Falcons in the Texas Air National Guard before retiring from American Airlines as a Captain, and Col. John Sledge (USMC Ret.), who piloted F-8 Crusaders, the F-4 Phantom II, the EF10B Skyknight, and the FJ Fury. Sledge later flew with the USMC Reserve, and eventually retired after serving as a USAir Captain. The Trojan Phlyers continue to perform in 2016.
On Saturday, September 17, 2011 at about 14:40 EDT, a civilian-owned Trojan belonging to the T-28 Warbird Aerobatic Formation Demonstration Team, known as the Trojan Horsemen, was lost as they were performing during an air show hosted by the 167th Airlift Wing of the West Virginia Air National Guard at Shepherd Field in Martinsburg, West Virginia. Pilot Jack "Flash" Mangan, a businessman who had previously risen to the rank of Major in the USAF and had been awarded three Meritorious Service Medals as well as the Fighter Pilot of the Year Award in 1984, was killed on impact. The Trojan Horsemen team stood down, but temporarily resumed flying on November 11, 2011.
On Sunday, July 17, 2016 at approximately 14:00 MDT, a privately owned T-28B Trojan with Canadian registration C-GKKD performed what appeared to be a loop during an aerobatic routine at the 2016 CFB Cold Lake Air Show and plummeted nose-first into the ground. The aircraft, which had been manufactured in 1955 and was originally assigned to US Navy Squadron VT-27 “Boomers” with BuNo 138364, had retained its historic 1970s era US Navy white-and-orange training livery with identification number 706 and VT-27 on the fuselage and a capitalized letter D on the vertical stabilizer, and was destroyed on impact. Pilot Bruce Evans, an accomplished Warbird flier with over 4,100 hours of flight experience and president of Firefly Aviation, was killed instantly.
Variants
XT-28
Prototype; two built.
T-28A
U.S. Air Force version with an 800 hp (597 kW) Wright R-1300-7 radial engine; 1,194 built.
T-28B
U.S. Navy version with 1,425 hp (1,063 kW) Wright R-1820-9 radial engine, three-blade propeller, belly-mounted speed brake; 489 built.
T-28C
U.S. Navy version, a T-28B with shortened propeller blades and tailhook for carrier-landing training; 266 built.
T-28D Nomad
T-28Bs converted for the USAF in 1962 for the counter-insurgency, reconnaissance, search and rescue, and forward air controller roles in Vietnam. Fitted with two underwing hardpoints. The later T-28D-5 had ammo pans inside the wings that could be hooked up to hardpoint-mounted gun pods for a better center of gravity and aerodynamics; 321 converted by Pacific Airmotive (Pac-Aero).T-28 Nomad Mark I - Wright R-1820-56S engine (1,300 hp).T-28 Nomad Mark II - Wright R-1820-76A (1,425 hp)T-28 Nomad Mark III - Wright R-1820-80 (1,535 hp)
Fairchild AT-28D
Attack model of the T-28D used for Close Air Support (CAS) missions by the USAF and allied Air Forces in Southeast Asia. It was fitted with six underwing hardpoints and the rocket-powered Stanley Yankee ejection seat; 72 converted by Fairchild Hiller.
YAT-28E
Experimental development of the counter-insurgency T-28D. It was powered by a 2,445 hp (1,823 kW) Lycoming YT-55L-9 turboprop, and armed with two .50 in machine guns and up to 6,000 lb (2,730 kg) of weapons on 12 underwing hardpoints. Three prototypes were converted from T-28As by North American, with the first model flying on 15 February 1963. The project was canceled in 1965.
T-28S Fennec
Ex-USAF T-28As converted in 1959 for use by the French Armée de l'Air, replacing the Morane-Saulnier MS.733A. It was flown by their Escadrilles d'Aviation Légère d'Appui (EALA; "Light Aviation Support Squadrons") in the counter insurgency role in North Africa from 1959 to 1962. Fitted with an electrically powered sliding canopy, side-armor, a 1,200 hp Wright R-1820-97 supercharged radial engine (the model used in the B-17 bomber), and four underwing hardpoints. It is referred to as the "S" variant because its engine had a supercharger on it; it has also been referred to as the T-28F variant – with the "F" standing for France.For fire support missions it usually carried two double-mount .50-caliber machine gun pods (with 100 rounds per gun) and two MATRA Type 122 6 x 68mm rocket pods. It could also carry on paired hardpoints a 120 kg.[264 lb.] HE or GP "iron" bomb, a MATRA Type 361 36 x 37mm [1.45-inch] rocket pod, a SNEB 7 x 55mm [2.16-inch] rocket pod, or a MATRA Type 13 single-rail, MATRA Type 20 or Type 21 double-rail, MATRA Type 41 quadruple-rail (2 x 2), or MATRA Type 61 or Type 63 sextuple-rail (3 x 3) SERAM T10 heavy rocket launchers. Improvised napalm bombs (called bidons spéciaux, or "special cans") were created by dropping gas tanks loaded with octagel-thickened fuel inside, then later igniting or detonating the spilled fuel with white phosphorus rockets.Total 148 airframes bought from Pacific Airmotive (Pac Aero) and modified by Sud-Aviation in France. After the war the French government offered them for sale from 1964 to 1967. They sold most of them to Morocco and Argentina. Argentina later sold some to Uruguay and Honduras.
T-28P
T-28S Fennec aircraft sold to the Argentinian Navy as carrier-borne attack aircraft. They were given shortened propeller blades and a tailhook to allow carrier landings.
T-28R Nomair
An attempt by Hamilton Aircraft Company of Tucson, Arizona to make a civilianized Nomad III-equivalent out of refurbished ex-USAF T-28As. It had a Wright Cyclone R-1820-80 engine to make it fast and powerful, but had to lengthen the wingspan by seven feet to reduce the stall speed to below a "street-legal" 70 knots. The prototype flew for the first time in September, 1960, and the FAA Type Certificate was received on 15 February 1962. At the time, the T-28-R2 was the fastest single-engined standard category aircraft available in the USA. It had been flown to a height of 38,700 ft. [11,800 m].
T-28R-1 Nomair I
A military trainer that had a tandem cockpit, dual instrumentation and flying controls, and hydraulically-actuated rearward-sliding canopy. Six were sold in 1962 as carrier-landing trainers to the Brazilian Navy and were modified with a carrier arrestor hook. They were later transferred to the Brazilian Air Force.
T-28R-2 Nomair II
Modified to have a cramped five-seater cabin (one pilot and two rows of two passengers) that opened from the port side. Ten aircraft were modified in all; one was sold to a high-altitude photographic company.
RT-28
Photo reconnaissance conversion for counter-insurgency use with Royal Lao Air Force. Number of conversions unknown.
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.
Argentina
On display
S/N 174112 (ex USAF 51-3574), formerly operated by the Argentine Air Force as E-608. Preserved at the Museo Regional Inter Fuerzas, Estancia Santa Romana, San Luis.
C/N° 174333 (ex-USAF 51-3795), formerly operated by the Argentine Naval Aviation. Preserved at the Argentine Naval Aviation Museum.
Australia
On display
49-1583 - Australian Aviation Museum, Bankstown Airport, New South Wales, Australia.
49-1494 - National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB 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.
two or six × 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)
