NAVAL AIR STATION PATUXENT RIVER, Md. — Inclement weather may have darkened the skies but failed to dim the enthusiasm of the more than 150 people attending the Aug. 27 Fly-In ceremony celebrating the arrival of the first two T-6B Texan trainer aircraft at Naval Air Station Whiting Field in North West Florida.

The arrival of the Texan signals the official start of the turnover from the T-34C Turbo Mentor, which has been in the fleet for more than 30 years, to the T-6B for primary flight training in the Navy.

“Delivery of the T-6B to Whiting Field is the culmination of a tremendous amount of effort from the T-6 IPT and Hawker Beechcraft,” said Capt. Andrew Hartigan, Naval Undergraduate Flight Training Systems Program Office (PMA-273) program manager here. Both government and industry personnel from Wichita, Kansas to Patuxent River and Wright Patterson have built a great program and kept it on track.”

The T-6B is a faster, stronger, more efficient aircraft that features an enhanced cockpit design and avionics that make it a good first step in teaching students before they begin their fleet tours. According to Tracy Patrick, the Navy integrated product team lead for the T-6B at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, the heads-up display (HUD), the Flight Management System (FMS) and digital displays are impressive improvements in technology from the T-34C, which is scheduled to be phased out of service by 2014.

“The T-6B provides a significant aircraft upgrade to the Joint Primary Aircraft Training System,” said Patrick, who is also a member of PMA-273. “With the updated cockpit, the aircraft more closely replicates follow-on trainer and fleet aircraft, which increases training effectiveness and reduces life cycle cost.”

The two aircraft delivered to Whiting, according to Patrick, will undergo technical manual verification and validation and be used for maintenance and initial instructor pilot training, beginning this fall.

Follow-on deliveries of T-6B aircraft are scheduled to begin this winter, and Initial Operation Capability is planned for the spring of 2010 at NAS Whiting Field. “Meeting this date is essential to naval aviation training, as the T-34 fleet rapidly approaches the end of its fatigue life,” said Hartigan.

IOC is defined as 15 aircraft and a full suite of simulators being in place to support student training. The simulator suite includes an ejection seat trainer, egress trainer, operational flight trainer and a unit training device.

The U. S. Navy Test Pilot School (USNTPS) at NAS Patuxent River is scheduled to receive its first T-6B in the beginning of 2010. The aircraft will be phased into USNTPS through 2011. As the T-6Bs are accepted into the USNTPS inventory, the T-6As will be transferred to Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla.

NAS Corpus Christi, Texas, is scheduled to receive the aircraft mid 2012, with IOC planned for the fall of 2012.

Currently, the Navy’s trainer aircraft inventory includes 47 T-6As, which are located at NAS Pensacola and NAS Patuxent River. The Navy plans to procure the remaining production aircraft in the T-6B configuration. The total number of aircraft being acquired in the T-6B configuration is 272. Four of the existing Navy T-6As will be transferred next spring to the U. S. Air Force as part of an aircraft swap Memorandum of Agreement, so the projected Navy T-6A/B inventory will number 315.

“It is an excellent time to be involved in naval aviation,” said Rear Adm. Mark Guadagnini, chief of Naval Air Training Command, Corpus Christi, Texas. “These modern digital systems are unlike any other flown before and surpass anything here in the U.S., or other countries. Our Navy and Marine Corps pilots will continue to be the best ever because of training in the T-6B.”

Jay Cope from the Naval Air Station Whiting Field Public Affairs Office contributed to this story.

Source: NAVAIR