Forum: Modern Military Aircraft

I live in Louisville, KY, and see F-5s on the tarmac at Louisville International with the tailcode "XL". Where are these aircraft from, and are they aggressor aircraft since they are painted in camoflauge?

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Those are Laughlin AFB T-38's, not F-5's.

AETC paints most, if not all the T-38's in that gray camo now.

I've wondered why they intentionally make them hard to see and then complain if there's a near miss in a MOA or when they operate in a high density traffic area like Standiford Field.

In the early days they were white with big day-glo orange markings for visibility. NASA's are still white.

OL

Thanks for the info. I thought for sure they had to be F-5s due to the camo. But I stand corrected.

As far as the NASA T-38s, I got to see them in action when I was in Houston doing Nondestructive Testing training. The facility I was at was right across the street from Ellington Field. I asked my instructor what those white T-38s were, and he informed me that they were what the astronauts used for training.

You are correct Outlaw. There are no more "White Rocket" T-38s in AETC.

Edwards has some white birds, but the AETC birds are all painted in a couple of variations of the gray-on-gray "Shamu" scheme. It is simply a low viz camo. The Aggressors do not use that particular paint scheme. The various camos that they use, replecate the schemes used by Russia, Iran, and other foreign nations. These paint schemes are used to show students which ones work, and which ones aren't as effective and why.

However, the AF no longer operates F-5s. They haven't for about 20 years. Aggressor squadrons currently fly Vipers and Eagles.

Structurally, the easiest way to tell the difference between an F-5F model and a T-38, is that the Tiger had a more pointed radome, and the pitot tube actually went through the radome. On the -38, the radome is more rounded, and the pitot tube sits over the top of the radome. However, the F-5B model actually used a similar setup.

I saw some T-6 II's at Louisville International with the tailcode VN. Looked it up, and they are from some base in the mid-west (Missouri or Arkansas, something like that). I guess Louisville is a good place to practice cross-country flying. Maybe they fly here, stay several days, then fly back. Not sure. With have an Air National Guard base here, but its just C-130s (Thoroughbred Express).

VN = Vance AFB, in Enid, OK. UPT units like to plan out a weekend X-Country and hit 2 or 3 different stops, be it at other AFBs or civilian FBOs.

A few still have a cool paint scheme: http://www.airliners.net/photo/USA---Ai ... b2fb79286d

Forum: Modern Military Aircraft

F-5s with tailcode XL