Navy’s Newest Trainer aircraft Starts Duty

Class began June 30 at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla. for the first group of naval flight officer students to train with the T-6A Texan II, the Navy’s newest trainer aircraft.

NAVAIR’s Undergraduate Flight Training System Program Office (PMA-273) accepted the first two T-6 Texans in November 2002 and has been accepting one or two every month since for a current inventory total of 15. The T-6 will replace the T-34 trainers and provide increased capabilities allowing pilots to fly higher and faster.

The first few weeks of the syllabus will be ground training only, which combines academic and computer-based training with the use of simulator exercises. There are currently three T-6 simulators in place at Pensacola with two more scheduled to arrive in November 2004. Actual flights for the NFOs in the T-6 will begin in August. By then, the Navy should have a total of 19 Texans in its inventory. Ultimately, the goal is to buy 328 T-6s.

The T-6 is a joint aircraft, used both by the Air Force and the Navy as part of a training system in coordination with simulator technology, known as the Joint Primary Aircraft Training System. One of the greatest advantages of the Texan is that it comes equipped with a digital cockpit. Prior to the Texan, student aviators conducted their initial flight training in aircraft equipped with an analog cockpit and then made the transition to a digital cockpit in their fleet aircraft. Now with the T-6A, students will begin their training with the technology they will actually fly in their fleet combat aircraft. [ANN Thanks Renee Hatcher, PEO(A) Public Affairs]

FMI; www.navair.mil