Northrup T-38A Talon at the Evergreen Aviation Museum

Photo by Cliff West

At the end of the 1950s, Northrup had developed a lightweight fighter design called the N-156, but it was not selling well (It would later become the F-5 Freedom Fighter, purchased mainly by U.S. allies). Meanwhile, the U.S. Air Force had yet to introduce a training aircraft capable of reaching Mach 1. Northrup modified the N-156 into a training aircraft called the T-38, which was adopted by the Air Force as its first supersonic training aircraft, and would go on to be the most produced, with over 1,100 built and many still in service today.

This concludes my visit to the Evergreen Aviation Museum. To see any additional posts about the museum, click on the Evergreen Aviation Museum label, or to see more posts about aircraft, click on the Aircraft label.