View Full Version : Was the Cessna T-37 officially the Tweet?
stepwilk
29th Apr 2009, 18:32
Yes, I know that's now what the USAF has named it and that's what it's universally known as (because of the air intakes' screech), but does anybody know if this was a nickname that gradually became ubiquitous--like the A-10 becoming the Warthog rather than the Thunderbolt II--or was this the airplane's official designation right from the start?
Need the skinny for a brief article I'm doing for Aviation History magazine on the occasion of the type's retirement this year.
forget
29th Apr 2009, 19:39
Retirement? Maybe in your neck of the woods. :)
Pakistan to receive more T-37 trainers (http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2008/08/21/315034/pakistan-to-receive-more-t-37-trainers.html)
L J R
29th Apr 2009, 19:50
and the so called Falcon is really called a Viper. There are others.
GreenKnight121
30th Apr 2009, 01:25
"Tweet" was an unofficial name well before it became official...
The T-37A had one very noticeable and unpleasant characteristic: it was very noisy, even by the standards of a jet aircraft. Its little turbojets emitted a high-pitched shriek that led some to describe the trainer as a "Screaming Mimi", and it was referred to as the "6,000 pound dog whistle". The piercing whistle quickly gave the T-37 its name: "Tweety Bird", or just "Tweet".
The Cessna T-37/A-37 (http://www.faqs.org/docs/air/avtweet.html)
The original official designation of the T-37 was "Jet Training Aircraft", or JTA.
Dragonfly was the original official designation of the A-37... often informally called "Super Tweet".
Note the T-37A had Continental-Teledyne J69-T-9 turbojets... license-built Turbomeca Marbores of 920 lb.s.t. each.
The T-37B/C had J69-T-25s... ~10% more powerful.
The A-37 had General Electric J85-GE-17As of ~2,900 lb.s.t. each... the same core engine as the T-38/F-5.
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BEagle
30th Apr 2009, 06:41
There was an ANG outfit at Barksdale which flew the A-37 whilst I was there during Giant Voice '79.
The problem they had with the jet was that on a very hot summer's day, the accelerate-stop distance was such that even Barksdale's long runway was insufficient. Yes, the A-37 had bigger engines and a greater all-up weight than the Tweet, but it seems that the brakes hadn't been sufficiently upgraded - so it could get into an unbalanced 'can't go, can't stop' situation with a single engine failure at certain speeds, given the weight the ANG flew it at.
It certainly seemed to be a ground-gripper on the few occasions when we saw one taking off.
JEM60
30th Apr 2009, 07:23
T.37. Once described to me as 'a machine for converting gasoline into noise!!'
YouTube - Tweet Rage (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaPgbBBMQHk)
Looks like the take off in this rather silly video has been sped up a fair bit, x2 on the FF.