Last Flight For The Buckeye

It's the end of an era. Last week, a T-2 Buckeye made its last student training flight from Naval Air Station Pensacola, before the type was retired from service after close to 50 years.

The Pensacola News-Journal reports Lt. j.g. Dave Chun and 1st Lt. Brian Miller were the last student pilots to fly the jet. For Chun, the August 8 flight was doubly special... as it also marked his successful checkout flight. He received his wings afterward.

"This is the third best day of my life," Chun said. "My wife and my baby, those are the only things that beat this."

One of the US military's first jet-engined trainers, the North American-built Buckeye was designed as a low-cost, multi-stage trainer. Sporting a straight wing and cockpit controls similar to the T-28C Trojan -- itself a training platform for the USAF's F-86 Sabre -- the Buckeye offered a faster top speed that the Air Force T-37 "Tweety Bird."

From the time the first T-2 entered service in 1959, US Navy Buckeyes flew over 3.4 million hours. Almost every Naval aviator in Pensacola flew the type, in preparation for carrier landings.

Befitting the historic occasion, Chun and Miller were greeted by two fire trucks, spraying torrents of water over their plane as they taxied in. A formal retirement ceremony will be held August 22; after that, the plane's next -- and likely final -- destination will be the "boneyard" at Davis Monthan AFB in Arizona.

"It's going to be different not to see the Buckeye flying over Pensacola," said 13-year Buckeye instructor Cmdr. James J. Crittenden. "It's hard to grasp the historic nature of the day."

The Buckeye will be replaced with the T-45 Goshawk... which sports far more advanced avionics, and flying dynamics that more closely mimic the F/A-18s Navy aviators fly in active duty.

"The Buckeye is the last of the old stick-and-rudder airplanes," said Lt. Cmdr. Doug Drew, commander of the VT-86 reserve training unit at Pensacola. "It's time to upgrade to something more modern. We're moving from the 20th century to the 21st century."

FMI: www.naspensacola.navy.mil/