North American T-2 Buckeye

The T-2 Buckeye was an American carrier training aircraft.

Description[]

With a requirement in 1956 for a multi-role jet trainer, the US Navy awarded North American a contract to build its North American NA-241 design, which combined proven components and equipment from earlier aircraft manufactured by the company. Ordered as the T2J-1 (later T-2A), this trainer combined a wing derived from the North American FJ-1 Fury and the control system of the North American T-28 Trojan, with a single 1542kg thrust Westinghouse J34-WE-36 turbojet, and accommodated the instructor and pupil in tandem, seated (eventually) on zero-zero ejection seats. The first of six initial production T-2As was flown on 31 January 1958 and deliveries to the US Navy began in July 1959, by which time the name Buckeye had been allocated to this trainer. Equipping US Navy Training Squadrons VT-4, -7, -9 and -19, a total of 217 T-2As was built. Two were modified to serve as YT-2B prototypes, in which the single J34 turbojet was replaced by two 1361kg thrust Pratt & Whitney J60-P-6 turbojets. The first was flown on 30 August 1962, being followed by 97 similar T-2B aircraft. Final production version was the T-2C which introduced General Electric J85 turbojets, preceded by a single YT-2C prototype conversion from a T-2B. A total of 273 was built under US Navy contracts, comprising 231 T-2Cs for navy use, plus 12 T-2D aircraft procured for Venezuela and 30 T-2E aircraft for Greece.^[1]

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