Taiwan Fighter Trainer Crashes
T-BE5A Loses Power, Splashes in Pacific
China In Arms BOOKSTORE and GIFT SHOP!
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe: $5 Month/$50 Annual (unable to secure a subscription contact the bank for permission for Stripe deposits).
Paid Subscriptions can choose 2 free books.
15 February 2025 (Saturday)
Taiwan Fighter Trainer Crashes
T-BE5A Loses Power, Splashes in Pacific
By Wendell Minnick (Whiskey Mike) 顏文德
TAIPEI - One Taiwan’s more secretive programs is the T-BE5A Advanced Jet Trainer (AJT) lost power in both engines and the pilot had to eject.
As a trainer, furtiveness seems abnormal unless there are problems.
A respected Taiwan specialist on Taiwan Air Force programs here in Taipei expressed frustration with the program.
“Even the basic performance datas are all secret.”
The new AJT program was designed to replace the aging AIDC AT-3 Tzu Chung. Sixty-two (63) were built in the 1980s by Taiwan’s Aerospace Industrial and Development Corporation (AIDC).
Taiwan also uses its ancient F-5 Tigers as an interim training platform between the AT-3 to the high performance fighters (F-16/IDF/Mirage).
AIDC also built Taiwan’s F-CK-1 A/B Ching-Kuo Indigenous Defense Fighter (IDF) to the F-CK-1 C/D Hsiang Sheng IDF variant.
The original IDF was used for the new AJT design, which calls into question whether older IDF programs have seeped into the new design.