T-2 BUCKEYE 'ANNIVERSARY MARKINGS'

The North American T-2 Buckeye was an American training and training aircraft from the Cold War period. The prototype flight took place in 1958. Serial production was carried out in the years 1958-1970. In total, about 530 serial copies of this aircraft were made. The drive was provided - in the T-2C version - by two engines General Electric J85-GE-4 turbojets . The plane's top speed is 840 km / h. The machine did not have on-board weapons. In the mid-1950s, the US Navy searched for an advanced training jet plane. The North American company, meeting these needs, offered the T-2 Buckeye machine, which was accepted by decision-makers from the American Navy. The new plane was based on many components of the FJ-1 Fury and T-28 Trojan aircraft. This allowed to reduce production costs and accelerate its commissioning. In the course of production, three basic development versions of this aircraft were created. The first one was called T-2A and was powered by a single jet engine. Shortly thereafter, a version of the T-2B was created, which was already powered by two engines Pratt and Whitney J-60-P1 turbojets, which improved its performance and flight safety. The last version produced for the US Navy was T-2C with two engines General Electric J85-GE-4. Regardless of the version The T-2 Buckeye was a very successful machine, with considerable structural strength, simple operation, easy to pilot and incredibly reliable. These qualities meant that the machines of this type were used in the US Navy until 2008, and were also purchased by Venezuela and Greece.