Posted: 4/6/2014 7:59:14 PM EDT
[#18]
Quote History Quoted:
This one to the left of the X-32? That is the Fairchild Republic T-46 (USAF Ser. No. 84-0493), slated to replace the Cessna T-37 Tweet, but ultimately cancelled. Sadly, the cancellation of the T-46 was the harbinger of the end of Fairchild Republic as an aircraft manufacturer on Long Island. The T-46 was a fine design and would have be an ideal replacement for the T-37, but the initial aircraft were poorly assembled, overweight (as is typical for prototype and early production aircraft) and Bob Dole (from Kansas, the home of Cessna) and others looking to take a bite out of the defense budget in the 80s had the program in their sights and it was cancelled. "Coincidentally," with the death of the T-46, Cessna got a significant contract to extend the lives of the T-37s in the inventory.
If the T-46 program went ahead the weight and assembly issues would have been resolved (as they have been for almost every new design) and our aviators would not be training on Swiss-designed turboprops today, and it is very likely that Fairchild Republic, builders of the A-10 (note the "family" resemblance), would have developed an AT-46 COunter INsurgency (COIN) variant, that I would venture to guess would have been a pretty popular and useful aircraft over the past 20 years.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/Fairchild_T-46-4.jpg
that's the one. thanks for the info. neat looking little airplane.
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Quoted:
What kind of plane is next to the F-32? This one to the left of the X-32? That is the Fairchild Republic T-46 (USAF Ser. No. 84-0493), slated to replace the Cessna T-37 Tweet, but ultimately cancelled. Sadly, the cancellation of the T-46 was the harbinger of the end of Fairchild Republic as an aircraft manufacturer on Long Island. The T-46 was a fine design and would have be an ideal replacement for the T-37, but the initial aircraft were poorly assembled, overweight (as is typical for prototype and early production aircraft) and Bob Dole (from Kansas, the home of Cessna) and others looking to take a bite out of the defense budget in the 80s had the program in their sights and it was cancelled. "Coincidentally," with the death of the T-46, Cessna got a significant contract to extend the lives of the T-37s in the inventory.
If the T-46 program went ahead the weight and assembly issues would have been resolved (as they have been for almost every new design) and our aviators would not be training on Swiss-designed turboprops today, and it is very likely that Fairchild Republic, builders of the A-10 (note the "family" resemblance), would have developed an AT-46 COunter INsurgency (COIN) variant, that I would venture to guess would have been a pretty popular and useful aircraft over the past 20 years.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/Fairchild_T-46-4.jpg
that's the one. thanks for the info. neat looking little airplane.
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