North American T-2C Buckeye

For over four decades, aspiring Navy and Marine Corps pilots learned the art of operating jets from aircraft carriers in the T-2 Buckeye, an unglamorous and unsophisticated aircraft designed for the vitally important mission of intermediate flight training for future Navy and Marine jet pilots. After evaluation at NAS Patuxent River in 1959, T2Js, then single-engine aircraft and redesignated as T-2s in 1962, were assigned to the Naval Air Training Command, where Buckeyes remained until 2008, when they were replaced by the T-45 Goshawk. The T-2C was the Buckeye's final U.S. Navy version, and Buckeyes were also flown by Greece and Venezuela. Bureau Number 158320 was accepted by the Navy on 23 June 1971 and served in the Training Command until July 2008, after which it was transferred to VX-20 at NAS Patuxent River. There it was used as a chase aircraft for high-risk development tests of the E-2C, C-2, E-2D, and P-8, and it also flew with the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School. When retired on 30 September 2015, it had logged 13,956 hours, 42,673 field landings, 344 catapult launches, and 347 arrested landings, and it made the last flight of any Navy-operated T-2.

California, Maryland · United States