New colors for US Navy trainers
At this moment, aircraft of the USN Training Wings are appearing in new color schemes.
The Chief of Naval Air Training (CNATRA) leadership has authorized a plan to replace the long-standing orange-and-white paint used on all training aircraft with new schemes. The choice of the new scheme differs per aircraft and was submitted in all cases by the Junior Officers of the Training Wings. For some aircraft the new scheme will have an appearance that more closely reflects the operational fleet aircraft that Student Naval Aviators will eventually fly.
T-6B Texan II
The T-6B Texan II, USN primary aircraft trainer, will adopt a new blue coat of paint reminiscent of aircraft employed by the Navy and Marine Corps in World War II and the Korean War such as the Grumman TBF Avenger and the Chance Vought F4U Corsair. The new scheme will highlight the heritage of Naval Aviation. It will have a full color United States roundel and will have white lettering.
T-45C Goshawk, TH-73 Thrasher, T-54A
For these aircraft, the new paint scheme will utilize shades of a glossy grey coat to more closely resemble the tactical paint scheme (TPS) covering operational fleet aircraft.
The shade of grey will closely resemble the specific counterpart for each training aircraft. For example, the coat of the TH-73 Thrasher will reflect the darker tactical paint scheme of the MH-60S Seahawk, while the T-54A will have a lighter coat similar to the P-8A Poseidon.
The T-45A will also receive a coat of glossy light grey. The new scheme will have a full color United States roundel and black lettering.
Additionally, the tail of each aircraft will feature a distinctive color scheme identifying the specific training air wing (TAW) an aircraft is assigned to, typically referred to as a tail “flash.”
T-44C Pegasus, TH-57 Sea Ranger
TH-57 Sea Rangers and T-44C Pegasus aircraft nearing the end of their service in the Navy, or in “drawdown,” will not receive the new designs.
The new changes to CNATRA aircraft will be gradual. An aircraft will only receive its new paint when the current life-cycle of its orange-and-white coat is nearly complete. This will result in the last orange-and-white paint coats disappearing in seven to eight years.
With newly acquired aircraft including the T-54A and the TH-73 Thrasher steadily arriving to TAW-4 and TAW-5 respectively, newer aircraft will be delivered with the updated paint scheme already in place.
At this moment, all ten T-54A aircraft (170744-170753) delivered to TAW-4 based at NAS Corpus Christi are in the new grey scheme, while one T-45C 163602/B-202 of TAW-2 flies in the gloss grey scheme at NAS Kingsville and one T-6B 166187/E-187 of TAW-5 operates from NAS Whiting Field-North in the “heritage” blue scheme.
Photos: Piet Luijken/Scramble and CNATRA/USN