T-37 Tweet, what now???

[Randy Haskin]

On side note, NASA's T-38Ns all operate on a "civilian" type certificate and have N numbers.

I have long wondered if this meant that, once it came time to retire them, those T-38s would be able to be operated by civilians.

[T33driver]

On side note, NASA's T-38Ns all operate on a "civilian" type certificate and have N numbers.

I have long wondered if this meant that, once it came time to retire them, those T-38s would be able to be operated by civilians.

A friend of mine here in WI was able to procure (via the US gov't GSA) a former NASA C-130H N427NA that was a former USN EC-130Q TACAMO bird. For a nominal fee to regenerate the airplane which hadn't flown in a few years, he got it essentially donated to his museum. I was one of the pilots that ferried it to Racine WI from Georgetown DE. He was not prohibited from flying it once he got it but chose not to. He's now is trying to sell it.

[Matt Gunsch]

On side note, NASA's T-38Ns all operate on a "civilian" type certificate and have N numbers.

I have long wondered if this meant that, once it came time to retire them, those T-38s would be able to be operated by civilians.

Not on a Type certificate, as there is not one. NASA is a Govt agency and as such, does not have to conform to alot of FAA regs. It is called Public Use, and they have a N number, but are not classified as anything else such as Standard, Experimental, or restricted.

[warbird1]

If I had the cash, I'd get a T-38A. a couple of those are available, but no way I could ever afford one.

I don't believe any flyable, non-demilled T-38's are available to individual civilians from AMARC. I've never heard of that happening. I know they go to museums, but they are non-flying static/de-milled examples. I know there have been T-38's for sale from foreign operators, or examples pieced together from statics and crashes (Chuck Thornton's), but I've never heard of a flyable one being sold to an individual direct from AMARC. AFAIK, unless policy has changed, the T-38 is considered a "tactical" aircraft and they're not allowed to be sold to individuals, unless de-milled.

http://www.thorntonaircraft.com/body/bo ... e_name=mil

Thanks for the link BHawthorne, but none of those planes for sale came directly from AMARC. They probably were either imports from other countries or parts assembled from static and/or musueum pieces. Chuck's first T-38, which was the first one on the civilian market (excluding NASA and company prototypes), was produced from several T-38 wrecks and statics. It did not come directly from AMARC.

[tex-fan]

those T-38s have been on http://www.controller.com/ for a really long time, i guess there's not to many folks that can fly-afford them. so the tweets might not be all that great of investment.

[dougdrivr]

uh...the Paris Jet? Kind of...sort of. They did seem to compete for loudest jet award.

Different airplane. The 4 seat version of the Tweet was not the Paris jet.

It was the Cesna 307. When I worked at experimental at Cessna Military-Twin, it was sitting in the boneyard next to the hangar (1967).

[Ztex]

Cessna 407...

This looks like fun huh?

[sdennison]

That would be cool. Any ever make it to the real world?

[JBoyle]

Slightly off topic...
What about T-34Cs...that would have been a nice plane for a civil owner.
Expensive to run (compared to a TBM-700/850, Meridian, PC-12) but nothing exotic.