A Buyer's Guide to Collector Aircraft

D. C. Agle

06/03/2002

Astronaut Michael Collins flew in one of history’s most important and exhilarating missions when he blasted off in Apollo 11 and arrived at the moon on July 20, 1969. (Collins was the command module pilot.) However jaded a pilot he may be, Collins still is fascinated by the T-38 Talon, a twin-engine supersonic jet. “Being able to fly it is a dividend which an astronaut manages to mention in the first five minutes when you encounter old buddies,” Collins wrote. “Partly this is because flying a sleek new speedy jet on your own schedule is a status symbol of sorts, but more basically it is that this type of flying is exciting, demanding, even exhilarating at times—a wonderful outlet for pent-up desk frustration, a third dimension rarely available in our two-dimensional world.”

In 1954, Northrop Corp. began development of the T-38 Talon, a lightweight and inexpensive fighter plane for foreign markets. However, the U.S. Air Force liked the idea of a thin-winged plane to train student pilots for the fast, complex world of supersonic aviation. More than 60,000 military pilots earned their wings in the White Rocket, and today’s Air Force pilots-in-training fly the T-38 to prepare for advanced fighter aircraft such as the F-15, F-16, and A-10 jets. NASA uses T-38s as observers and chase planes, and as trainers for astronauts. (Click image to enlarge)

The plane, however, is not just for Air Force pilots and astronauts-in-training. Model 65-10462 is for sale for $3.5 million through Thornton Aircraft, a Van Nuys, Calif., company that restores and sells military aircraft. “The T-38 is everything a pilot wants in an aircraft,” says Chuck Thornton, the company’s president. “It climbs like a son of a gun, has supersonic capability, aerobatics are a dream in it—the roll rate is a phenomenal 720 degrees a second—and, of course, it looks great.”
Since a landing mishap, model 65-10462 has been grounded for two decades. The T-38, which can reach a top speed of more than 800 mph, has 2,000 hours on its airframe, little more than 2,000 hours on the wings, and its two General Electric turbojets were recently overhauled. According to Thornton, the jet has undergone X-ray, fluorescent dye, and magnetic particle inspections to check its structural integrity. (Click image to enlarge)

The plane features fully pressurized cabins, each with “hot” ejection seats. Included in the cost of the jet are flight training for two pilots and a custom external paint scheme.

If that’s not enough to convince you that the T-38 is the ultimate air show, then consider that it was the jet of the ultimate air show performers. From 1974 to 1982, the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds flung themselves through the sky in T-38s. “A T-38 is for the very wealthy guy who loves to fly and wants the ultimate flying machine,” says Thornton. “There is no safer, better-performing, more fun plane available in the civilian market. Period.”

Thornton Aircraft Co., 818.787.0205, www.thorntonaircraft.com