T-38 Talon Air Force Training Plane for B-52 & U-2 Pilots Still Flies 60-Years Later

By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

(Washington D.C.) T-38, A Real Training Legend: Pilots of Air Force B-52 and B-1 bombers, SR-71, U-2 spy plane, and tanker aircraft have all been trained and prepared for operations over many decades in the T-38 Talon, a twin-engine, high-altitude supersonic jet trainer.

The T-38: Explained

The Northrop T-38 Talon entered operational service as far back as 1961 and was still training pilots 60 years later in 2022. Air Force Global Strike Command still uses the T-38 to train U-2 and B-2 pilots.

The aircraft has in recent years also been flown by Taiwan, Germany, South Korea, and Turkey as a method of preparing pilots on emerging sets of electronics, air maneuvers, weapons, and sensors. A special AT-38B was designated as a weapon variant to train pilots on advanced gun sights, gun pods, rockets, and bombs, according to the U.S. Air Force’s 2018 Almanac.

The most significant element of the T-38 is quite simply its continued life. After more than 60-years of training pilots, the U.S. Air Force is modifying the aircraft to fly to 2029. Although the Air Force awarded Boeing a contract to replace the T-38 in 2018 with the T-X, the plan is for the service to keep flying the T-38 through the decade until sufficient numbers of the new aircraft arrive.

Some of the many enhancements being pursued include structural replacements, propulsion enhancements, and avionics upgrades, the 2018 text states.

Interestingly, previous variants of the T-38 have been converted into the T-38C variant with a heads-up display, GPS technology, inertial navigation and traffic collision avoidance, the Almanac states.