North American T-28 Trojan

The North American Aviation T-28 Trojan is a piston-engined military trainer aircraft used by the United States Air Force and United States Navy beginning in the 1950s. Besides its use as a trainer, the T-28 was successfully employed as a counter-insurgency aircraft, primarily during the Vietnam War. It has continued in civilian use as an aerobatics and Warbird performer.

Variants

 * XT-28: Prototype, two aircraft built.
 * T-28A: United States Air Force version with an 800 hp (597 kW) Wright R-1300-7 radial engine; 1,194 aircraft built.
 * T-28B: United States Navy version with 1,425 hp (1,063 kW) Wright R-1820-86A or - 86B radial engine, three-blade propeller, belly-mounted speed brake; 489 aircraft built.
 * T-28C: United States Navy version, a T-28B with shortened propeller blades and tailhook for carrier-landing training; 266 aircraft built.
 * T-28D Nomad: T-28Bs converted for the USAF in 1962 for the counter-insurgency, reconnaissance, search and rescue, and forward air controller roles in Vietnam. Fitted with two underwing hardpoints. The later T-28D-5 had ammo pans inside the wings that could be hooked up to hardpoint-mounted gun pods for a better center of gravity and aerodynamics; 321 aircraft converted by Pacific Airmotive (Pac-Aero).
 * Fairchild AT-28D: Attack model of the T-28D used for Close Air Support (CAS) missions by the USAF and allied Air Forces in Southeast Asia, which were nicknamed "Tangos" by their pilots. It was fitted with six underwing hardpoints and the rocket-powered Stanley Yankee ejection seat; 72 aircraft converted by Fairchild Hiller.
 * YAT-28E: Experimental development of the counter-insurgency T-28D. It was powered by a 2,445 hp (1,823 kW) Lycoming YT-55L-9 turboprop, and armed with two .50 in machine guns and up to 6,000 lb (2,730 kg) of weapons on 12 underwing hardpoints. Three prototypes were converted from T-28As by North American, with the first model flying on 15 February 1963. The project was canceled in 1965.
 * T-28S Fennec: Ex-USAF T-28As converted in 1959 for use by the French Armée de l'Air, replacing the Morane-Saulnier MS.733A. It was flown by their Escadrilles d'Aviation Légère d'Appui (EALA; "Light Aviation Support Squadrons") in the counter insurgency role in North Africa from 1959 to 1962. Fitted with an electrically powered sliding canopy, side-armor, a 1,200 hp Wright R-1820-97 supercharged radial engine (the model used in the B-17 bomber), and four underwing hardpoints. It is referred to as the "S" variant because its engine had a supercharger on it; it has also been referred to as the T-28F variant – with the "F" standing for France. For fire support missions it usually carried two double-mount .50-caliber machine gun pods (with 100 rounds per gun) and two MATRA Type 122 6 x 68mm rocket pods. It could also carry on paired hardpoints a 120 kg HE or GP "iron" bomb, a MATRA Type 361 36 x 37mm rocket pod, a SNEB 7 x 55mm rocket pod, or a MATRA Type 13 single-rail, MATRA Type 20 or Type 21 double-rail, MATRA Type 41 quadruple-rail (2 x 2), or MATRA Type 61 or Type 63 sextuple-rail (3 x 3) SERAM T10 heavy rocket launchers. Improvised napalm bombs (called bidons spéciaux, or "special cans") were created by dropping gas tanks loaded with octagel-thickened fuel inside, then later igniting or detonating the spilled fuel with white phosphorus rockets. A total of 148 airframes bought from Pacific Airmotive (Pac Aero) and modified by Sud-Aviation in France. After the war the French government offered them for sale from 1964 to 1967. They sold most of them to Morocco and Argentina. The Fuerza Aérea de Nicaragua (FAN) purchased four of these ex-Morocco aircraft during 1979. Argentina later sold some to Uruguay and Honduras.
 * T-28P: T-28S Fennec aircraft sold to the Argentinian Navy as carrier-borne attack aircraft. They were given shortened propeller blades and a tailhook to allow carrier landings.
 * T-28R Nomair: An attempt by Hamilton Aircraft Company of Tucson, Arizona to make a civilianized Nomad III-equivalent out of refurbished ex-USAF T-28As. It had a Wright Cyclone R-1820-80 engine to make it fast and powerful, but had to lengthen the wingspan by seven feet to reduce the stall speed to below a "street-legal" 70 knots. The prototype flew for the first time in September, 1960, and the FAA Type Certificate was received on February 15th 1962. At the time, the T-28-R2 was the fastest single-engined standard category aircraft available in the United States. It had been flown to a height of 38,700 feet (11,796 meters).
 * T-28R-1 Nomair I: A military trainer that had a tandem cockpit, dual instrumentation and flying controls, and hydraulically-actuated rearward-sliding canopy. Six were sold in 1962 as carrier-landing trainers to the Brazilian Navy and were modified with a carrier arrestor hook. They were later transferred to the Brazilian Air Force.
 * T-28R-2 Nomair II: Modified to have a cramped five-seater cabin (one pilot and two rows of two passengers) that opened from the port side. Ten aircraft were modified in all; one was sold to a high-altitude photographic company.
 * RT-28: Photo reconnaissance conversion for counter-insurgency use with Royal Lao Air Force. Number of conversions unknown.

Users

 * Argentina
 * Argentine Air Force
 * Argentine Naval Aviation
 * Bolivia
 * Bolivian Air Force
 * Brazil
 * Brazilian Navy
 * Republic of China
 * Republic of China Air Force
 * Democratic Republic of the Congo
 * Zairean Air Force
 * Democratic Republic of the Congo Air Force
 * Cuba
 * Cuban Air Force
 * Dominican Republic
 * Dominican Air Force
 * Ecuador
 * Ecuadorian Air Force
 * Ethiopia
 * Ethiopian Air Force
 * France
 * French Air Force
 * Haiti
 * Haitian Air Force
 * Honduras
 * Honduran Air Force
 * Japan
 * Japan Air Self-Defense Force
 * Khmer Republic
 * Khmer Air Force
 * Republic of Korea
 * Republic of Korea
 * Laos
 * Royal Lao Air Force
 * Mexico
 * Mexican Air Force
 * Morocco
 * Royal Moroccan Air Force
 * Nicaragua
 * Nicaraguan Air Force
 * Philippines
 * Philippine Air Force
 * Saudi Arabia
 * Royal Saudi Air Force
 * Thailand
 * Royal Thai Air Force
 * Tunisia
 * Tunisian Air Force
 * United States
 * United States Army
 * United States Air Force
 * United States Navy
 * Uruguay
 * Uruguayan Naval Aviation
 * Vietnam
 * Republic of Vietnam Air Force
 * Vietnam People's Air Force

Related Development

 * AIDC T-CH-1 Chung Hsing

Comparable Aircraft

 * De Havilland Canada DHC-1 Chipmunk
 * North American T-6 Texan
 * PZL TS-8 Bies