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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

This refers to the aircraft. For other uses see T28.

VNAF T-28s over Vietnam

Canadian civil T-28C in US Navy markings in 2004

Canadian civil T-28B in US Marine Corps markings in 1988, featuring Bill the Cat cartoon nose art

Canadian civil T-28C refuelling

Meeting aérien Ambérieux en Bugey (France), 2006

French T-28 Fennec

T-28 Trojan trainer that formerly served with the Royal Laotian Air Force

Derelict Royal Saudi Air Force T-28A Trojan at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, one of four acquired in the 1950s

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.

[edit] 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]

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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]

[edit] 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 "coup de etats" during the 1980s, the aircraft were often deployed as dive bombers by rebel forces.

[edit] 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]

[edit] Operators

Argentina

Bolivia

Bolivian Air Force

Brazil

Brazilian Navy

Republic of the Congo

Congolese Air Force

Cuba

Cuban Air Force

Ecuador

Ecuadorian Air Force

Ethiopia

Ethiopian Air Force

France

French Air Force

Honduras

Honduran Air Force

Japan

Japanese Air Self-Defense Force

Laos

Royal Lao Air Force

Mexico

Mexican Air Force

Morocco

Royal Moroccan Air Force

Philippines

Philippine Air Force

Dominican Republic

Dominican Air Force

South Korea

Republic of Korea Air Force

Saudi Arabia

Royal Saudi Air Force

South Vietnam

Vietnam Air Force

Thailand

Royal Thai Air Force

United States

Uruguay

Uruguayan Navy

Vietnam

Vietnam People's Air Force

[edit] 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]

[edit] Specifications (T-28D)

General characteristics

Crew: Two
Length: 33 ft 0 in (10.06 m)
Wingspan: 40 ft 1 in (12.22 m)
Height: 12 ft 8 in (3.86 m)
Wing area: 268 ft² (24.9 m²)
Empty weight: 6,424 lb (2,914 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 8,500 lb (10,500 with combat stores) (3,856 kg)
Powerplant: 1× Wright R-1820-86 Cyclone radial engine, 1,425 hp (1,063 kW)

Performance

Maximum speed: 343 kn (552 km/h)
Service ceiling: 39,000 ft (10,820 m)
Rate of climb: 4,000 fpm ()

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)

[edit] See also

United States Air Force portal

Related development

Comparable aircraft

Yak-11

[edit] 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.

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: T-28 Trojan

[IEA-0] The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft 1985, p. 2678.

[1] Toperczer 2001, pp. 8–9.

[2] 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.

[ArgAF-3] "Air Force Aircraft Fleet." Aeromilitaria, April 2009. Retrieved: 25 July 2009.

[4] United States Air Force Museum 1975, p. 81.

[5] "Flying Day Information." Temora Aviation Museum, 2009. Retrieved: 25 July 2009.

[6] Lubich, Dwight. "T-28B Trojan." USS Hornet Museum, 2008. Retrieved: 25 July 2009.

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