60 years T-38 at NASA
T-38 at NASA... the white rocket Northrop T-38 Talon supersonic twin jet trainer
1958: Subsonic USAF Lockheed T-33 T-bird jet available. (up to Sept 1973).
1959: April 16 NASA asked the U.S. Air Force to furnish two F-102B and two T-33 at Langley Virginia
1961: Gordon Cooper complained to NY congressman Jim Fulton about difficulty in getting flight time at NASA Langley Virginia. During weekends, Cooper made 500 miles trip & joined the F-104 squadron at McGee Tyson AFB at Alcoa Tennessee. The story was brought by Washington Post reporter William Hines.
1962: “Mercury 7” astronauts requested to get flight time to maintain experience and keep flight pay
USAF provided 8 Lockheed T-33 “T-bird” Shooting Star, 4 Convair F-102 Delta Dagger and a F-106 Delta Dart single jets engine fighter aircraft.
January 10, 1963: Walter Schirra near T-38 jet USAF TF551 after an evaluation flight as NASA was looking for a less gas-guzzling jet.
1964 = First T-38s for NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration
All in all, NASA T-38 fleet reached 32 aircraft, housed at hangar 276 (renamed “John Young hangar” in October 2021) at Ellington Field - Houston Texas). Young was T-38 flight time record holder with 9200 hours!
Photos show Scott Carpenter and Wally Schirra. In times of AI images, I always add the official NASA photonumbers in my posts!
(Photos: NASA S63-18249 & S63-18250)
