Originally Posted by
Two's in
Good question. The most likely reason is the MU-2 provides near jet performance (almost 300kt, 30,000 ceiling) with turboprop operating costs and handling (75 kt stall). ...
I was directly involved in the selection of the MU-2. The requirement was for a tuboprop airplane that could attain 250 knots in level flight.
The ‘Rice Rocket’ replaced the T-33 for the primary mission of providing a target (aka ‘duck’) for student GCI controllers.
It had to go 250 knots because the radar training consoles could double the displayed speed as long as the real airplane could go 250 knots.