Lockheed T2V-1 Seastar - a photo on Flickriver

            The US Navy was impressed with the USAF's T-33 Shooting Star, and ordered a few as the TV-2 in 1949.  The TV-2s were identical to USAF T-33s, which meant that they could not be used to train naval aviators--it could not land on a carrier.  At the time, the Navy lacked a dedicated carrier-capable jet trainer, so Lockheed was commissioned to redesign the T-33/TV-2 for carrier use.

The result, the T2V-1 Seastar, was for all intents and purposes a new aircraft, with only the most basic resemblance to the T-33.  The aircraft was strengthened for the shock of carrier landings and launches, and against saltwater corrosion, a redesigned tail and leading-edge flaps for better low-speed handling, a tailhook, and a raised rear seat for the instructor to better see over the student in carrier landings.  The first aircraft entered service in 1956; in 1962, the designation was switched to T-1A Seastar.  

150 were built, and it proved to be something of an interim design; the Seastar was replaced in the early 1970s by the North American T-2 Buckeye, which was an entirely new, purpose built design.  Only a handful are known to survive, possibly as few as three.  

The Pima Air and Space Museum are known to have two Seastars, half of the surviving aircraft.  Bureau Number 144200 was delivered to the Navy in 1957, but served only briefly as a trainer with BTG-7 at NAS Memphis, Tennessee.  In 1960, it became a test and evaluation aircraft with the Naval Test Pilot School at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, and finished its career as a base "hack" aircraft at NAS Quonset Point, Rhode Island in 1970.  In 1985, it was donated to Pima.  

144200 looked a little faded when I saw it in 2019, but given the excellent attention Pima has been given its training aircraft collection lately, it will likely be repainted in the near future.  It is painted in standard Vietnam-era Navy camouflage, with almost no markings.

Taken on: May 18, 2019

Tags:

Lockheed

T2V

T-33

Seastar

QuonsetPoint

USNavy

ColdWar

trainer

aircraft

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Sets appears in: • Pima Air and Space Museum • US Navy and Marine Corps Aircraft more » • Aviation Photography « less

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