Beechcraft T-34C Turbo-Mentor
T-34C Turbo-Mentor ….. Fast Facts
-
The Beechcraft T-34 Mentor is a propeller-driven, single engine, military trainer aircraft derived from the Beechcraft Model 35 Bonanza. The earlier versions of the T-34 had a piston engine. These were eventually succeeded by the upgraded T-34C Turbo-Mentor, with a turboprop engine.
-
Piston engine T-34s were produced from 1953 to 1959. In 1973, the T-34C Turbo-Mentor, powered by a Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-25 turboprop engine was developed. The last Turbo-Mentor was manufactured in 1990.
-
The T-34 was initially developed as a primary trainer for the U.S. Air Force and later used in that role by all U.S. services. The primary customer for the Turbo-Mentor was the Naval Air Training Command which used it to train thousands of aviators and flight officers for the Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and numerous NATO and Allied nations.
-
More than 2,300 T-34s, of all variants, were produced. The T-34s (piston and turbine) remained in service for more than six decades.
-
After more than 35 years of service, the T-34C has been completely replaced by the T-6 Texan II.
-
An armed version, the T-34C-1, featuring four underwing hard points was developed for export customers in 1977.
-
The museum’s T-34C (BuNo 160509) was donated in 2013 by the National Naval Museum in Washington, DC. A group of volunteers picked it up in Oceana Naval Air Station, Virginia and disassembled it for transportation to the Martin State Airport. It was reassembled and taken out to Strawberry Point for display.