Warbird Information Exchange

Older jet fighters find new purpose supporting airplane programs

During a chase proficiency flight a T-33 (top) and T-38 break formation over Washington state. (John Parker photo) (sorry, no photo!)

“I started at The Boeing Company pounding rivets on 727s,” said Nate Andrews, who said he began his career at the company building the future of aerospace. Today, 35 years later, he is lead mechanic for two Boeing Test & Evaluation T-38 fighter and trainer aircraft.

These 50-year-old trainers help test for the future of aerospace, by helping new model airplanes verify and validate their operation limits.

”The T-38’s can keep up with our faster airplanes during high speed tests,” Andrews said.
As new model airplanes begin to verify and validate their operation limits, the test support aircraft give "chase," flying along in close proximity and providing an external pair of eyes for safety, recording visual data and giving feedback to the test pilots.

This is critical, for example, during flutter testing, which intentionally induces vibration meant to challenge the airframe’s integrity. A flutter test is considered a higher risk flight and chase aircrew can spot anomalies that may not be apparent inside the airplane or from data being beamed to a ground station.

In total, four airplanes based at Boeing Field in Seattle are the primary aircraft used in fixed-wing chase -- two T-33s and two T-38s. The T-38 is a high speed jet and used for testing that prioritizes speed over duration of flight. The T-33 is a 1950s era single-engine jet, and while it lacks the speed of a T-38, it is more efficient and often deployed for lower-speed chase.

No matter the mission, reliability is critical, program leaders said. If one of the aircraft can’t fly, it could delay a major test program and the team is up to the challenge.

Throughout 2013, all four aircraft supported testing significantly. The two T-38s are currently engaged in efforts across the enterprise -- one resides in Palmdale, Calif., to support F-15 flight testing, and the other operates out of Boeing Field in Seattle to support the Northwest's 787-9 Dreamliner testing.

“I don’t know anybody here that works in the hangar that doesn’t have an ‘I wanna be there’ attitude,” said Eric Christensen. Similar to his colleague Andrews, Christensen and the team in “Hangar 1” at Boeing Field maintain the T-33s meticulously. A huge volume of binders, stretching down a 7-foot (2-meter) shelf, detail every part, modification and feature of the T-33s he oversees.

It is a similar scene for the T-38’s documentation, and the team has amassed such a depth of knowledge that organizations outside of Boeing often come to them for the team’s expertise on the airplanes.

But no one benefits from the team's knowledge more than the Boeing programs that depend on BT&E crews to reliably fly on schedule and return with valuable data that validates and verifies the test airplane’s performance, program leaders said.

The four aircraft that Christensen and Andrews maintain have a combined age of more than 200 years. But they are as vital as ever, the two said, supporting the diverse needs to cutting edge Boeing military and commercial airplanes.

By Adam Tischler

I've seen the Sabre with the first 747, never a F-100. I'm not saying they didn't have one, just I've never seen it.

Considering F-100s were still in the inventory when the 747 was new, it must have been an A or C. It was long before any were with civil (non-DoD bailed) warbird operators.
Flight Systems out of Mojave had an early Super Sabre then, I photographed it when it was on static at the airport alongside my then new 1979 Mustang.