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Randolph celebrates 50th Anniversary of T-38 landing

  • Published
  • By Maj. Rosaire Bushey
  • Air Education and Training Command public affairs
RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  In 1961, the average American earned $5,300 a year, could buy a house for $12,500, a car for less than $3,000 and gas for 27 cents a gallon.

In 1961, the U.S. Air Force bought a plane for $756,000 -a deal that continues to pay dividends 50 years later.

Randolph held a ceremony March 17, marking the 50th anniversary of the T-38 Talon touching down at Randolph AFB, Texas. It's arrival began a training mission that continues to this day - one that has witnessed more than 70,000 Air Force aviators lay claim to the title T-38 pilot.

"Flying the T-38 was akin to owning a new sports car," said retired Lt. Col. Donald Wheeler, a member of class 62FZ, the first class to train in the Talon. "The airplane was a joy to fly, easy to handle and easy to land."

It was easy because it was made to be.

Welco Gasich, a Northrop engineer who worked on the development of the T-38, spoke back at a ceremony in 1984 of how, from the beginning, the T-38 was made to be safe, reliable and affordable.

"The T-38, I think, is a very good example of the convergence of technology and the military requirements coming together at a propitious time," Mr. Gasich said.

The technology started with a General Electric engine used for drones and Mr. Gasich explained that, after GE modified the engine and Northrop "wrapped a plane around it," they had a small plane with an engine that produced a 7:1 thrust-to-weight ratio - far higher than the 4:1 or 5:1 used by frontline fighters of the time.

"We briefed some people in the Air Force and they said, 'this is ridiculous. You can't have an airplane that small that has the performance that you have'," he said.

But it did. The T-38 was built not only for performance but safety as well, Mr. Gasich explained. Owing to lighter materials, a lower aircraft weight and design modifications that enhanced stability, the designers of the T-38 sought to lower the accident rate from 20 to 25 per 100,000 flying hours, as was the norm for Century-Series aircraft, to seven to 10 accidents per 100,000 hours.

"It didn't happen by happenstance," Mr. Gasich said in 1984 of the safety rate, then still about two per 100,000 hours. "It happened because we tried to design an airplane that was safe to fly."

Today, the lifetime Class A mishap rate through 2009 stands at less than 1.5 per 100,000 flying hours.

"Class 62FZ had a great safety record and I can't recall any near misses," Mr. Wheeler said. "Like most aircraft, it presented no problems if you flew it within the envelope."

From most viewpoints - safety, cost and performance - the pilots who have flown it are still singing odes to the T-38, which began making Air Force history a full year before four little known Englishmen hit the pop charts under the name The Beatles.