T-38 Talon
ICAO T38A supersonic trainer that first flew in 1959 and is still teaching fighter pilots. Live T-38 Talon positions.
Flying right now
Live · 30s- LEXUS5 28,000 ft 66-4354 🇺🇸 United States
- MN01 28,000 ft 60-0582 🇺🇸 United States
- AMMO83 25,225 ft 61-0851 🇺🇸 United States
- HYPE62 20,125 ft 66-4366 🇺🇸 United States
- HYPE63 20,100 ft 66-4345 🇺🇸 United States
- HYPE61 20,025 ft 68-8129 🇺🇸 United States
- HYPE64 20,025 ft 66-4347 🇺🇸 United States
- JUNGLE1 17,050 ft 66-4384 🇺🇸 United States
- SCAR11 14,675 ft 68-8098 🇺🇸 United States
- SCAR12 14,675 ft 70-1576 🇺🇸 United States
- ROPER22 10,500 ft 64-13297 🇺🇸 United States
- RANDY99 3,925 ft 66-4328 🇺🇸 United States
Airframe
- Manufacturer
- Northrop
- Role
- Advanced jet training
- Class
- L2J — Landplane, 2 jet engines
- Crew
- 2 — instructor and student
- First flight
- 10 April 1959
- In service
- 1961
Operators airborne
About the T-38 Talon
The T-38 is the step between the T-6 and a fighter, and it has been that step for over sixty years. More than 1,100 were built, the last in 1972, and the survivors have been rebuilt so many times that the type is effectively on its third life.
It is one of the more numerous types on the feed for the same reason the T-6 is: training bases fly it hard and fly it often. Formation sorties are common, so T-38s frequently appear on the globe in pairs or fours holding the same heading and altitude a few seconds apart.
NASA flies a fleet of them as astronaut proficiency trainers, which is why a T-38 sometimes turns up somewhere no air force base explains. Replacement by the Boeing T-7A Red Hawk has begun but will take most of the next decade.
Callsign prefixes
- ACE
- A long-running US Air Force training block
- SLATE
- Frequently seen on Talon training sorties
- NASA
- NASA proficiency and chase flights
How to recognise it
- —Tiny and needle-thin: a pointed nose, a long slim fuselage and very short, very thin wings.
- —Two small engines buried in the rear fuselage, with the tailplane set low.
- —On the feed, T-38s often appear as pairs or fours in close formation on identical tracks.
Common questions
+ How old is the T-38?
The design first flew in 1959 and production ended in 1972, so every airframe flying is at least fifty years old. They have been repeatedly re-winged and rewired, and the T-38C has an entirely modern cockpit inside a 1960s shell.
+ Is the T-38 supersonic?
Yes — it was the first supersonic trainer, and it is still capable of about Mach 1.3. Training sorties rarely need that, so what you see on the feed is usually subsonic.
+ What is replacing the T-38?
The Boeing T-7A Red Hawk. Deliveries have slipped repeatedly, and the T-38 is expected to keep flying into the 2030s alongside it.