USAF T-38 har motorproblemer - Kan påvirke norske flyelever - AirForceTimes

Flytypen har tjenestegjort i USAF i 52 år og er oppdatert flere ganger, men skrogene og motorene er gamle. Det er bemerkelsesverdig at erstatteren T-7A Red Hawk ikke er nevnt med et ord. Det er åpenbart veldig forsinket. Bildet under er tatt i 1967 av undertegnede på Williams AFB da jeg hadde gleden av å fly denne flytypen, i likhet med mange nordmenn fordelt på flere forskjellige ATC baser i USA. Et fantastisk fly.

(Red.)

T-38 Talon engine repair woes could slow pilot training for months

By Rachel S. Cohen

 Mar 16, 07:20 PM

Airmen conduct pre-flight operations with the T-38 Talon training jet as part of undergraduate pilot training at Vance Air Force Base, Okla., Dec. 9, 2021. (Airman 1st Class Christian Soto/Air Force)

The Air Force’s T-38 Talon training jet fleet is digging out of engine maintenance delays that could slow military pilot production for at least another six months.

Service officials say the main contractor, Arizona-based StandardAero, hasn’t delivered enough freshly refurbished engines to train American and foreign combat pilots. Those deliveries have lagged the usual rate for several months due to a web of complications.

The problem comes as the Air Force struggles with a growing pilot shortage that particularly affects the fighter community. T-38s are the Air Force’s sole intermediate platform for teaching airmen to fly fighter and bomber aircraft.

After months of intervention, however, the T-38 enterprise is beginning to see improvements.

“It’s an old engine. … There’s a lot of moving parts,” Air Education and Training Command boss Lt. Gen. Brian Robinson said Feb. 16 in an exclusive interview at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas. “But as a customer, I just want to produce pilots.”

He said the Air Force has tried to give StandardAero the time and resources to get up to speed and meet their contractual requirements. That’s paid off: The J85 enterprise produced 30 engines as required in February, and it hopes to be able to service all parts in the next month or so, according to Air Force Materiel Command spokesperson Brian Brackens.

But the Air Force said it expects to see pilot training shortfalls through the end of the fiscal year, and that the J85 turbojet engine enterprise won’t fully recover until April 2024.

Air Force Materiel Command is “all hands on deck, talking to the company that won the contract: ‘Hey, you’ve got to start producing,’” Robinson said.