75 years of the T-28

Three-quarters of a century ago, in September 1949, the North American Aviation XT-28 chugged into the sky, launching a production run of nearly 1,950 of the big single-engine, tricycle-gear trainers that became air show favorites after their military careers were over.

In mid-1950, the production-model T-28A Trojan arrived at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida for evaluation of its suitability as a trainer and gunnery platform. Those A-models used a Wright R-1300 radial engine whose 800-horsepower output could be harnessed by a two-blade paddle propeller, sometimes nicknamed a bowtie for its appearance when stopped in the horizontal position.

The T-28, offered by North American to meet an Air Force requirement, owes a lot to an original design the company made for the Navy in 1947 that never progressed beyond two prototypes.

In Navy parlance of 1947, this was the SN2J-1. Earlier Navy Texan trainers were labeled SNJ, so this new machine, bearing no family traits from the Texan, carried the numeral “2” in its designator to show it was North American’s second trainer design for the Navy.

Look at a photo of the SN2J-1, and you will see a lot of DNA passed along two years later to the Air Force’s T-28 Trojan project. But the SN2J was a holdover taildragger, even as the post-war world of jets was going full-on trike.

Propelled by a 1,100 horsepower Wright R-1820 Cyclone, the SN2J foretold the power change that would come to the T-28 series with the advent of the T-28B, specifically for the Navy. By January 1949, Aviation Week reported the Navy’s ardor for the SN2J had cooled, providing a reprieve for that service’s bright yellow SNJ Texans.

The Navy came back to North American when U.S. defense policy favored uniform pilot training in the armed services. As the T-28B, the Trojan would find a home in the Navy, too.

In 1948, the Navy dropped the mission letter for torpedo bombers, which had been “T,” letting the broader use of A-for-Attack handle that mission. The sea service began invoking “T” as the trainer designation at that time, so the first Navy T-28Bs had an alphanumeric moniker that looked more Air Force than Navy for that era.

The T-28Bs relied on that beefier Wright R-1820 engine in a version that could produce upward of 1,425 horsepower when a three-blade Hamilton-Standard prop was mounted. The B-models incorporated a ventral dive brake. Intended for land service, the B-models numbered more than 500 aircraft. They began service in 1952.

Where taildragging SNJ Texans had earlier been fitted with tailhooks for carrier qualification of new Naval aviators, the tricycle gear world benefitted from the hook-equipped T-28C, distinguishable by a notched aft ventral fuselage incorporating a home for the tailhook when in retracted position.

The Air Force evolved away from T-28A trainers in the mid-1950s, switching to the Beech T-34 and Cessna T-37 for primary and basic training. A surplus of A-model airframes subsequently led to modification programs that yielded the T-28D, upgraded with a Wright R-1820 engine, 3-blade propeller, and hard points for ground attack. (Some accounts say D-models were rebuilt from ex-Navy T-28Bs.) Sometimes called the Nomad, T-28Ds saw service in Southeast Asia.

The U.S. Navy retired its T-28s as trainers by 1984 with the advent of the turbine-powered Beech T-34C Turbo-Mentor.

Two arguments favored the early deployment of T-28s over Vietnam in the 1960s. They were ruggedly simple, so they could be maintained under less-than-ideal conditions. And they used reciprocating engines — a quirky benefit at a time when a provision in the Geneva Accords of 1954 concerning Vietnam discouraged the use of jet aircraft in combat there. The U.S., although not a signatory to those accords, nonetheless supported them, and did not want to be seen as overtly breaching the accords early in the fighting.

France employed armed R-1820-powered T-28A modifications, named the Fennec after a North African fox. This mirrored where they operated, as French Fennecs flew counter-insurgency missions in Algeria.

The fervor for counter-insurgency aircraft in the 1960s led to the modification of three T-28s by North American, each powered by a turboprop Lycoming T55 engine spinning a four-blade propeller. Testing of the ensuing YAT-28E was concluded in 1965 without entering production.

With foreign sales of T-28 trainers and attack aircraft, and resales to other countries, versions of the T-28 have served in the armed forces of more than 25 nations.

The T-28B as built for the Navy lists a top speed of 343 mph. It cruises at 310 at 30,000 feet — something today’s warbird Trojans aren’t likely to see.

Wingspan is 40 feet, 1 inch, and length is 33 feet. Range is listed in excess of 1,000 miles. An empty weight of 6,424 pounds leads to a gross weight of 8,500 pounds. The engine specified for the T-28B is the Wright R-1820-86, rated at 1,425 horsepower.

You’ll know if a T-28B or later is flying at your next air show. Its presence is heralded by a chugging, throbbing exhaust pattern from its R-1820 engine. Lines of T-28s taxi and form big formations each year at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh in Wisconsin.