west6008

There must be surplus Cessna T-37 trainers available for civilians.
Here's what I would try
Take out the ejection seats to save weight.
Add 6 ft to each wingtip (there's a huge stabilizer on this airplane, so it would be stable)

When finished, take off and head out over the mountians and get into wave lift.
One engine throttled back would be enough for staying in the lift zone.
I dont think this is wacko because the T-37 is a very clean airplane
A P38 once flew in wave lift

TFF

You wont be able to hear the naysayers because of the whine of the engines!

west6008

That engine has been described as a kerosene burning siren
Never have had the pleasure of seeing a T37 in flight,
would like to get a DVD

TFF

One manouver that they teach in it is inverted spins. There was one on e bay about a year ago, but it was a big restoration project. The biggest problem about this plane is it is old and their is no replacement on the horizon, so they are getting used up far more than most government things. Even though the the parts wont fit, the Citation came out of its design and old Citations are getting pretty cheap for what they are. As for the noise, with the engine idling on the ground at 200 yards to me sounds like an F1 race car stuck in your ear.

Bax

My Feedback: (11)

The 'Tweets were also known as "The Converter". That's because they converted useful fuel into noise.

BeauMiller

My Feedback: (18)

The T-37 is just about gone from USAF service...replaced by the T-6 Texan II. I enjoyed all the time I logged in the jet (1400 hrs) and only wish the engines and avionics had been updated in the 80's like what was proposed. It was a good, solid flying jet trainer and served us well for the past 55 years. It is a shame there aren't more available on the civilian market now, but it would be ridiculously expensive to operate. Full fuel is 309 gals and we would burn nearly all of that for a 1.3-1.5 hour training sortie. It would certainly be a neat project to re-engine (Williams FJ-44s?), remove the ejection seats, and install a glass cockpit of some sort (G1000). I think you would have a nice little private jet in the class of single engine turbos, but with fewer seats.

TFF - we stopped teaching intentional, inverted spins years and years ago. I did have some friends who ended up in the inverted position because of student errors though. You actually had to push forward on the stick to slow the spin before doing a rapid pull back to break the stall. One guy had a dual engine flameout after going inverted - that had to be exciting!

As for making it into a wave soarer...I'm not so sure about that even with 12' of extra wing. Those engines are HEAVY and the wing is FAT and SHORT...not a good combo for a sailplane. With a strong enough wave it might be possible though...

Beau

Hossfly

When I went through pilot training, back in those days, also many years ago, when once the gear and flaps were up, out of sight of mobile control, and NO RADAR to follow you, on those few solo flights we got, that little "dog whistle" was ever so much fun chasing trucks on those long highways in SW Texas.
Those were the days, my friend.

Chad Veich

My Feedback: (60)

Cessna proposed a civilian version of the "dog whistle" with 4 seats.