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New T-6B trainers have digital cockpits

Because cracked champagne bottles leave marks, streams of water from two fire trucks christened the arrival of the Navy’s newest generation of training aircraft at Whiting Field Naval Air Station on Thursday.

Whiting’s Training Air Wing 5 took delivery of its first two T-6B Texan II training aircraft, which will replace the T-34 Turbo Mentor. The Navy has used the older craft since 1978.

About 200 people gathered at a hangar to welcome the new arrivals. The new planes cost $5.5 million each.

“Modern aerial combat is a very complex business,” said Rear Adm. Mark Guadagnini, chief of the Naval Air Training Command. “There are systems that come from space. There are systems that come from off-board. ... And there are systems onboard the airplanes that are unlike any that have been flown before.

“To operate those systems to their fullest advantage, you need to train correctly. That’s what the T-6 brings us. It brings us a digital cockpit.”

The new systems will be more familiar to a generation of pilots who grew up with home computers and iPods, he said.

Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Dave Hoten piloted one of the two planes. He was trained on the older model.

“They’re both really good airplanes,” Hoten said. “The new plane has a digital avionics package that is more like commercial airliners and fleet aircraft of today, whereas the old airplane has round gauges, steam gauges and older technology. This brings up the training aspect to the digital age.”

Marine Col. John Walsh, commodore of Training Air Wing 5, was excited to get the new planes. He pointed out that the T-34 in which he trained at Whiting in 1987 is still in use today.

“You can see around here we’re not big fans of the Cash for Clunkers program,” Walsh said, drawing laughter from the crowd. “We like to keep things flying around here. The taxpayers buy stuff for us, we take good care of it, and we put it to good use. That T-34 is getting pretty darn old, obviously.”

The new plane flies at a maximum of 316 knots. The old one tops out at 280 knots.

Whiting will receive 156 planes by 2015, delivered in periodic shipments. Student pilots will begin using the new planes in April.