T-50 Golden Eagle

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For the Soviet light tank of WWII, see T-50 tank

KAI T-50 Golden Eagle
Type	Trainer and Light Attack Aircraft
Manufacturer	Korean Aerospace Industries/Lockheed Martin
Maiden flight	August 20, 2002<ref name="Flug Revue">Flug Revue</ref>
Introduced	February 22, 2005<ref name="ThomasNet">ThomasNet news on T-50</ref>
Status	Active Service
Primary user	Republic of Korea Air Force
Number built	100+<ref name="Flug Revue"/><ref name="Aeroflight">Aeroflight article on T-50</ref>
Unit cost	US$22 million<ref name="AIN">AIN Online article on T-50</ref>

The T-50 Golden Eagle is a supersonic trainer for next-generation fighter pilots, developed by Korean Aerospace Industries in conjunction with Lockheed Martin. The program includes the A-50, or T-50 LIFT, as a light attack aircraft variant<ref name="Flug Revue"/>.

1 Development
2 Design
3 Weapons
4 Specifications
5 See also
6 External links
7 References

[edit] Development

The T/A-50 program is the replacement for the aging A-37B currently in service with the South Korean Air Force. The program was origially intended to develop an indigenous trainer aircraft capable of supersonic flight in order to train and prepare pilots for the KF-16's. Until then South Korea had no other military aircraft of its own except the rotor-based KT-1 basic trainer produced by Samsung Aerospace (before it merged to become KAI). Although KF-16's had been manufactured under license for several years, the T-50 was seen as an important breakthrough in South Korea since it was the first attempt at indigenous manufacturing of supersonic aircraft. Most of the core systems and technology were provided by Lockheed Martin, however, and in general the T/A-50 is said to closely resemble the KF-16 configuration.

The A-50 variant is simply an armed version of the T-50 and is categorized as a Light Combat Aircraft. Several tests have acknowledge the A-50 as providing a stable platform for both free-fall and precision-guided weapons. KAI and Lockheed Martin are currently pursuing a joint marketing program for the T-50 variant internationally.

The design of the aircraft, formerly known as the KTX-2 (Korean Trainer eXperimental-2), was done in 1999. It was renamed T/A-50 Golden Eagle in February 2000, with the final assembly of the first T-50 taking place on 15 January, 2001. The first flight of the T-50 took place in August 2002, with initial operational capability achieved in August 2003. A production contract for 25 T-50s was placed in December 2003, with aircraft scheduled to be delivered between 2005 and 2009.

The September 2006 issue of the Gonggun, the official magazine of the South Korean Air Force, ran an article about the future FA-50. The FA-50 is basically an A-50 with an AESA radar and a tactical datalink which are not yet specified.

[edit] Design

The T-50 Golden Eagle design is mainly derived from the Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon<ref name="vector">Vector Site</ref>, and they are similar in their economic use of a single engine, speed, size, cost, and the range of weapons. The program initially focused on developing trainer jets for the F-16 pilots<ref name="Aeroflight"/>, since many air forces around the world, including the Republic of Korea Air Force, used F-16 as main constituents of the fighter population. The differences between the F-16 and the T-50 can be found in their speed: Mach 2.0 vs. Mach 1.4; size: the size of the T-50 is 80% of that of the F-16<ref name="Aeroflight"/>; cost:$45 million vs. $22 million); and capabilities.

T-50 is equipped with Honeywell H-764G embedded global positioning/inertial navigation system and HG9550 radar altimeter<ref name="airforce technology">Airforce Technology article</ref>. The A-50 variant uses APG-67 radar from Lockheed Martin. The aircraft is the first trainer to feature the digital fly-by-wire control interface<ref name="Global">Global Security review</ref>. The aircraft can carry up to two pilots, and the high-mounted canopy and the tandem seating allow the pilots superior visibility, vital to successful locking of enemy targets. The cockpit holds On Board Oxygen Generating System<ref name="Global"/>

The altitude limit is 48,000 ft, and the airframe is designed to last 8,000 hours of service<ref name="Global"/>. There are seven internal fuel tanks with capacity of 2,655L, five in the fuselage and two in the wings<ref name="airforce technology"/>. Additional 1,710L of fuel can be carried in the three external fuel tanks<ref name="airforce technology"/>.

T-50 Golden Eagle runs a single General Electric F404 turbofan engine with Full Authority Digital Engine Control. The engine consists of three-staged fans, seven axial stage arrangement, and an afterburner<ref name="airforce technology"/>. The aircraft can supercruise at the speed of Mach 1.05, and with maximum 78.7 kN (17,700lbs) of thrust with the afterburner<ref name="airforce technology"/>, the maximum speed of Mach 1.4.<ref name="AIN"/><ref name="Global"/>.

[edit] Weapons

A 20 mm General Electric<ref name="vector"/> M61 Vulcan cannon with 205 rounds of linkless linear feed can be mounted internally behind the cockpit<ref name="airforce technology"/>. Two AIM-9 Sidewinder heat-seeking air-to-air missiles can be attached at each of the wingtip rails, and more missiles can be equipped externally to the rocket pods under the wings and the centreline hardpoints<ref name="airforce technology"/>. Compatible air-to-surface weapons include AGM-65 Maverick missile, LAU-3 and LAU-68 rocket launchers, and CBU-58, MK-20, MK-82, MK-83, and MK-84 cluster bombs<ref name="Flug Revue"/>. Up to three external fuel tanks can be added to the bottom of the aircraft<ref name="Flug Revue"/>.