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| Press Release Number: E200307021 | 02-Jul-03 |
NAVAIR provides Navy's newest trainer aircraft to first class of students |
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| By Renee Hatcher PEO(A) Public Affairs Class began June 30 at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla. for the first group of naval flight officer students to train with the T-6A Texan II, the Navy's newest trainer aircraft. NAVAIR's Undergraduate Flight Training System Program Office (PMA-273) accepted the first two T-6 Texans in November 2002 and has been accepting one or two every month since for a current inventory total of 15. The T-6 will replace the T-34 trainers and provide increased capabilities allowing pilots to fly higher and faster. The first few weeks of the syllabus will be ground training only, which combines academic and computer-based training with the use of simulator exercises. There are currently three T-6 simulators in place at Pensacola with two more scheduled to arrive in November 2004. Actual flights for the NFOs in the T-6 will begin in August. By then, the Navy should have a total of 19 Texans in its inventory. Ultimately, the goal is to buy 328 T-6s. The T-6 is a joint aircraft, used both by the Air Force and the Navy as part of a training system in coordination with simulator technology, known as the Joint Primary Aircraft Training System. One of the greatest advantages of the Texan is that it comes equipped with a digital cockpit. Prior to the Texan, student aviators conducted their initial flight training in aircraft equipped with an analog cockpit and then made the transition to a digital cockpit in their fleet aircraft. Now with the T-6A, students will begin their training with the technology they will actually fly in their fleet combat aircraft. NAVAIR provides advanced warfare technologies through the efforts of a seamless, integrated, worldwide network of aviation technology experts. From aircraft and weapons development to carrier launch and recovery; from sensors to real-time communications to precision targeting; from aircraft and weapons sustainment to state-of-the-art training; NAVAIR provides dominant combat effects and matchless capabilities to the American warfighter. |
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