The North American Aviation T-28 Trojan is a radial-engined military trainer aircraft manufactured by North American Aviation and 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.
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. 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, in total 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 from which they were adapted, 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 civilian conversions of ex-military T-28As were undertaken by PacAero as the Nomad Mark I and Nomad Mark IIThe Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft 1985, p. 2678.
Operational history
After becoming adopted as a primary trainer by the U.S. Air Force (USAF), the U.S Navy (USN) and U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) adopted it, as well. Although the USAF 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 USN (and by default, the USMC and U.S. Coast Guard) well into the early 1980s.
The largest single concentration of this aircraft was employed by the USN 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-34C turboprop trainer. The last USN 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, DC.
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 (NVAF) as its first fighter aircraft.Toperczer 2001, pp. 8–9. Lt. Saibory later trained NVAF pilot Nguyen Van Ba in the operation of the T-28, where Nguyen flew the T-28 in its first successful interception against a Republic of Vietnam Air Force (RVNAF) C-123 Provider on 15 February 1964, earning the NVAF its first aerial victory.Toperczer 2015, pp. 18–19. The NVAF unit that operated the T-28 in the respective military operation has later evolved into the modern Vietnam Airlines.
T-28s were supplied to the RVNAF in support of ARVN ground operations, seeing extensive service during the Vietnam War in RVNAF hands, as well as the Secret War in Laos. A T-28 Trojan was the first US fixed-wing attack aircraft (nontransport type) lost in South Vietnam, during the Vietnam War. Capt. Robert L. Simpson, USAF, Detachment 2A, 1st Air Commando Group, and Lt. Hoa, RVNAF, were shot down by ground fire on 28 August 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.Hobson 2001, p. 12.
Other combat uses T-28s were used by the CIA in the former Belgian Congo during the 1960s.
The T-28B and D were the primary ground-attack aircraft of Khmer Air Force in Cambodia during the war there, largely provided from the U.S. Military Equipment Delivery Team and maintained by Air America. On the night of 21 January 1971, PAVN sappers managed to get close enough to destroy the majority at Pochentong Airbase. Replacements were quickly shipped in. On 17 March 1973, a pilot of a T-28, said to be Capt. So Petra, a common-law husband of one of the daughters of the overthrown Prince Norodom Sihanouk, machine gunned and bombed the palace of Lon Nol in an attempt to assassinate him, killing at least 20 and wounding 35, before defecting to Khmer Rouge-held lands.
France's Armée de l'Air used locally remanufactured Trojans, T-28S Fennec, for close-air support missions in Algeria.
Nicaragua replaced its fleet of more than 30 former Swedish P-51s with T-28s in the early 1960s,Hagedorn 1993, p. 41 with more aircraft acquired in the 1970s and '80s.Hagedorn 1993, pp. 42–43
The Philippines used 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 (SDSM&T), funded by the National Science Foundation, and operated in this capacity from 1969 to 2005. SDSM&T was planning to replace it with another modified, but more modern, former military aircraft, specifically a Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II. This plan was found to carry too many risks associated with the costly modifications required, and the program was cancelled in 2018.
MicroProse purchased a T-28B in 1988 for use in marketing their flight-simulator video games, and named it Miss MicroProse. USAF reserve pilot Bill Stealey would fly with game journalists for this purpose, and ran a competition called "I Cheated Death with Major Bill", which selected three fans to fly with him on a "stunt-filled flight lesson". The plane was later sold to a flight school in Cincinnati.
Aerobatics and warbird display Many retired T-28s were subsequently sold to private civilian operators, and due to their reasonable operating costs, they are often found flying or displayed as warbirds today.
Variants
XT-28 Prototype; two built
T-28A USAF version with an Wright R-1300-1 radial engine driving a two-bladed propeller; 1,194 builtGinter 1981, p. 6Darke 2013, p. 147
T-28B USN land-based trainer version with Wright R-1820-86 radial engine driving a three-bladed propeller and fitted with a belly-mounted speed brake; 489 built from new and 17 converted from T-28Ginter 1981, p. 27
T-28C USN version, a T-28B with shortened propeller blades and tailhook for carrier-landing training; 299 builtGinter 1981, p. 53
T-28D Nomad T-28Bs were converted for the USAF in 1962 for the counterinsurgency, reconnaissance, search and rescue, and forward air controller roles in Vietnam; they were fitted with two underwing hardpoints. The later T-28D-5 had ammunition pans inside the wings that could be hooked up to hardpoint-mounted gun pods for a better center of gravity and aerodynamics; 321 were converted by Pacific Airmotive (Pac-Aero). T-28 Nomad Mark I - Wright R-1820-56S engine (). T-28 Nomad Mark II - Wright R-1820-76A () T-28 Nomad Mark III - Wright R-1820-80 ()
Fairchild AT-28D An attack model of the T-28D, it was used for close air support missions by the USAF and allied air forces in Southeast Asia, which were nicknamed "Tangos" by their pilots. It was fitted with six underwing hardpoints and the rocket-powered Stanley Yankee ejection seat; 72 were converted by Fairchild Hiller.
YAT-28E An experimental development of the counterinsurgency T-28D, it was powered by a Lycoming YT-55L-9 turboprop and armed with two machine guns and up to 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.Tate Air Enthusiast May/June 1999, pp. 58–59.
T-28S Fennec Former USAF T-28As were converted in 1959 for use by the French Armée de l'Air, replacing the Morane-Saulnier MS.733A. They were flown by the Escadrilles d'Aviation Légère d'Appui (Light Aviation Support Squadrons) in the counterinsurgency role in North Africa from 1959 to 1962. They were fitted with an electrically powered sliding canopy, side armor, a Wright R-1820-97 supercharged radial engine (the model used in the B-17 bomber), and four underwing hardpoints. The version is referred to as the "S" variant because the 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-mounted machine gun pods (with 100 rounds per gun) and two MATRA Type 122 6 x rocket pods. It could also carry, on paired hardpoints, a high explosive or GP "iron" bomb, a MATRA Type 361 36 x rocket pod, an SNEB 7 x 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 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. In 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. Most were sold to Morocco and Argentina. Argentina later sold some to Uruguay and Honduras.
T-28P T-28S Fennec aircraft were 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 United States. It had been flown to an altitude of .
T-28R-1 Nomair I A military trainer, it had a tandem cockpit, dual instrumentation and flying controls, and a hydraulically actuated, rearward-sliding canopy.Flying Magazine, April 1962, p. 3. 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 This version was 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 A photoreconnaissance conversion, it was used for counterinsurgency with the Royal Lao Air Force. The number of conversions is unknown.
AIDC T-CH-1 A derivative of the T-28 developed by AIDC in Taiwan, the AIDC T-CH-1 was powered by a Avco Lycoming T53-L-701 turboprop engine; 50 aircraft were produced for the Taiwanese Air Force between March 1976 and 1981. The type has since been retired.
B.F.13 () Royal Thai Armed Forces designation for the T-28D
B.JF.13 () Royal Thai Armed Forces designation for the AT-28D
Operators
Argentine Air Force - 34 T-28ATaylor and Munson 1973, p. 179.