The VT-28 "Rangers" is a

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...

primary flight training squadron based at

Naval Air Station Corpus Christi Naval Air Station Corpus Christi is a United States Navy naval air base located six miles (10 km) southeast of the central business district (CBD) of Corpus Christi, in Nueces County, Texas. History A naval air station for Corpus Christi ...

, Texas.

History

VT-28 was initially established as Advanced Training Unit 611 (ATU-611). The Rangers began as an advanced multi-engine training squadron flying the S2F-1T, a training variant of the

Grumman S-2 Tracker The Grumman S-2 Tracker (S2F prior to 1962) is the first purpose-built, single airframe anti-submarine warfare (ASW) aircraft to enter service with the United States Navy. Designed and initially built by Grumman, the Tracker was of conventional ...

. On 1 May 1960 ATU-611 was redesignated VT-28 and in September 1962 its aircraft was redesignated the TS-2A in accordance with the

1962 United States Tri-Service aircraft designation system The Tri-Service aircraft designation system is a unified system introduced in 1962 by the United States Department of Defense for designating all U.S. military aircraft. Previously, the U.S. armed services used United States military aircraft de ...

. After decades of use and the designation of thousands of

Naval Aviator Naval aviation / Aeronaval is the application of military air power by navies, whether from warships that embark aircraft, or land bases. It often involves '' navalised aircraft'', specifically designed for naval use. Seaborne aviation encompas ...

s, the TS-2A was replaced with the

T-44A The Beechcraft King Air is a line of American utility aircraft produced by Beechcraft. The King Air line comprises a number of twin-turboprop models that have been divided into two families. The Model 90 and 100 series developed in the 1960s ...

Pegasus twin-engine turboprop trainer in 1979. VT-28 continued training advanced multi-engine aviators until 1990 when the

Chief of Naval Air Training The Naval Air Training Command (NATRACOM) is a one-star Echelon III command that conducts flight training of student Naval Aviators, student Naval Flight Officers and student Air Vehicle Pilots (AVP). Though it does not conduct Aircrew Badge#U.S ...

(CNATRA) reassigned the squadron to be responsible for training instructors and updating training syllabi for the T-44A and T-34C Turbo Mentor. Three years later, CNATRA again reassigned VT-28, this time to be the Navy's fifth primary training squadron flying the T-34C Turbo Mentor. In 2013 the squadron began its transition from the T-34C to the Navy's newest primary flight trainer, the Beechcraft T-6B Texan II

Aircraft

* S2F-1T / TS-2A Tracker - Advanced multi-engine (1960-1979) * T-44A King Air - Advanced multi-engine (1979-1993) * T-34C Turbo Mentor - Primary flight training (1990-2013) *

T-6B Texan II The Beechcraft T-6 Texan II is a single-engine turboprop aircraft built by Textron Aviation. It is a license-built Pilatus PC-9, a trainer aircraft. The T-6 replaced the United States Air Force's Cessna T-37B Tweet and the United States Navy' ...

- Primary flight training (2013 to present)

References

{{reflist Training squadrons of the United States Navy

History

Aircraft

See also

References