Training Squadron 27 | |
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![]() VT-27 squadron insignia | |
Active | 11 July 1951–present |
Country | United States |
Branch | ![]() |
Role | Training |
VT-27 is a primary training squadron of the United States Navy. One of just five Navy primary training squadrons, VT-27 is one of two located on the Texas Coastal Bend.
Training Squadron 27 was initially established on 11 July 1951 as Advanced Training Unit-B at Naval Air Station, Corpus Christi. The command moved to Naval Air Station, Kingsville in 1952 and again to Naval Air Station, New Iberia, Louisiana in 1960. It was there the squadron was redesignated VT-27 in July of that year and about that time that the Grumman S2F-1T Tracker was put into service as a multi-engine trainer. In September 1962 the 1962 United States Tri-Service aircraft designation system changed the Tracker's designation to TS-2A. In July 1964, the "Boomers" were returned to Naval Air Station, Corpus Christi where they continue to be an important part of the community.
In 1973, the squadron began a transition to the role of a primary training squadron with the arrival on 1 August of the first T-28B Trojan. By 1 October 1973, the last Grumman TS-2A Tracker had departed, signifying the end of the advanced training role and the completion of the transition to primary training. In August 1983, the squadron took delivery of the first T-34C Turbo Mentor aircraft. From March 1984, when the last T-28B ever used for naval flight training departed, to June 2013, the T-34C was the mainstay of the Navy and Marine Corps primary flight training program. In June 2013 VT-27 transitioned from T-34C to the T-6B Texan II. The "Boomers" average well over 11,000 training missions a year, and more than 70 sorties per training day. [ citation needed ]
The Grumman S-2 Tracker 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 design — propeller-driven with twin radial engines, a high wing that could be folded for storage on aircraft carriers, and tricycle undercarriage. The type was exported to a number of navies around the world. Introduced in 1952, the Tracker and its E-1 Tracer derivative saw service in the U.S. Navy until the mid-1970s, and its C-1 Trader derivative until the mid-1980s, with a few aircraft remaining in service with other air arms into the 21st century. Argentina is the last country to still operate the Tracker.
The Beechcraft T-34 Mentor is an American propeller-driven, single-engined, military trainer aircraft derived from the Beechcraft Model 35 Bonanza. The earlier versions of the T-34, dating from around the late 1940s to the 1950s, were piston-engined. These were eventually succeeded by the upgraded T-34C Turbo-Mentor, powered by a turboprop engine. The T-34 remains in service more than seven decades after it was first designed.
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Naval Air Station Kingsville or NAS Kingsville (NASK) is a United States Navy Naval Air Station located approximately 3 miles east of Kingsville, Texas in Kleberg County. NAS Kingsville is under the jurisdiction of Navy Region Southeast and is the headquarters of Training Air Wing Two. The station also operates a nearby satellite airfield, NALF Orange Grove.
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Training Air Wing ONE is a United States Navy aircraft training air wing based aboard Naval Air Station Meridian, located 11 miles northeast of Meridian, Mississippi in Lauderdale County and Kemper County. TW-1 is one of five training air wings in the Naval Air Training Command, and consists of two jet training squadrons. The wing trains Student Naval Aviators from the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, and international allies. Following completion of primary flight training and selection of an advanced training pipeline, Student Naval Aviators are assigned to TW-1 for either intermediate and advanced strike pipeline training or advanced E-2/C-2 training in the T-45C Goshawk jet training aircraft.
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