T-34C Training Aircraft To Serve Beyond 2017

ARLINTON, Va. – The Beechcraft-built T-34C Turbo Mentor, steadily being replaced by its Beechcraft-built successor, the T-6 Texan II, is scheduled to serve at least through 2017, although its role as a primary training aircraft will end during 2015.

Last week, one of the two remaining training (VT) squadrons still instructing student naval aviators in the T-34C, VT-27 at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas, flew its last training flight in the Turbo Mentor, leaving only co-located VT-28 still training students in the aircraft. VT-27 now is operating the T-6B.

Rob Koon, a spokesman for the Naval Air Systems Command, said the phase-out of the T-34C from the Naval Air Training Command is “currently scheduled for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2015.”

The T-34C will continue to serve for at least two more years beyond 2015 in other roles, such as range spotting for strike fighter training and as chase planes, and in other roles for test units. The phase-out of the T-34C from the Navy’s inventory is “currently scheduled for some time after the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2017,” Koon said.