NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center 

at Edwards Air Force Base operates a T-34C 

training plane for mission support and pilot 

proficiency. 

Mission support aircraft such as the T-34C 

accompany research flights for photography 

and video data collection, and also as safety 

chase. At Armstrong, the T-34C is primarily 

used for chasing remotely piloted unmanned 

air vehicles which fly slower than NASA’s 

F-18’s mission support aircraft can fly. It is 

also used for required pilot proficiency flying.

Another example of the T-34C’s utility as a 

support aircraft is its role in validating detectand-avoid technology in Unmanned Aircraft 

Systems. In April 2016, NASA Armstrong 

began flying the T-34C as an “intruder” in 

the Unmanned Aircraft Systems integration 

into the National Airspace System’s (UASNAS) Flight Test Series 4. Equipped with 

ADS-B and TCAS I, it is one of six aircraft 

to fly as an intruder in the test. The T-34C’s 

job includes flying within a pre-determined 

distance to NASA Armstrong’s Ikhana, on a 

specifically charted course, to test detect and 

avoid systems that were integrated on Ikhana 

with the purpose of providing the UAS pilot 

on the ground with situational awareness and 

alerting of nearby aircraft and provide the 

UAS pilot with timely information to maintain a safe distance. 

In its role as a military trainer, the instructor pilot would ride in the back seat, while 

the student would be in the front seat. As a 

NASA mission support chase plane, the back 

seat would be occupied by a photographer or 

flight test engineer on research missions. 

T-34C Mission Support Aircraft

NASA’s T-34C flies over Lake Isabella in Southern California. EC05-0133-12
FS-2016-5-092-AFRC

NASA Armstrong has operated two T-34C aircraft. The 

first was previously flown at the Glenn Research Center 

in Cleveland, Ohio, for propulsion experiments involving turboprop engines, and then came to Armstrong as a 

chase aircraft in 1996. That aircraft was returned to the 

U.S. Navy in 2002. Armstrong obtained its second T-34C 

in early 2005 from the U.S. Navy’s Air Warfare Center 

Aircraft Division at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, 

Md., where it was due to be retired. 

Nicknamed the TurboMentor, the T-34C is an upgraded, 

turboprop-powered version of the earlier piston-engined 

T-34A and T-34B models that served as primary training 

aircraft for Navy and Marine Corps pilots for more than 

40 years. Built by Beech Aircraft Co. (now Raytheon 

Aircraft), the T-34C shares the same basic wing planform and landing gear as the civilian Beechcraft Bonanza series of general aviation aircraft from which it was 

derived. 

Aircraft Statistics

Primary Function at NASA Armstrong: Mission support, 

safety chase, pilot proficiency

Contractor: Raytheon Aircraft Company 

(Formerly Beech Aircraft) 

Propulsion: Model PT6A-25 turbo-prop engine (Pratt & 

Whitney Aircraft of Canada), rated at 750 shp. driving a 

three-blade constant-speed propeller.

Wingspan: 33 feet 5 inches (10 meters)

Length: 28 feet 8 inches (9 meters) 

Height: 9 feet 11 inches (3 meters)

Weight: 4,425 Lb. gross; approx. 3,000 Lb. empty 

Speed: Max: 280 Knots (322 mph); Min: 60 knots

 (70 mph)

Ceiling: 25,000 Feet 

Range: Approximately 600 nautical miles at 200 knots 

cruising speed

Crew: Two (pilot, flight test engineer or photographer)

Ground line

7 ft 6 in. Dia.

28 ft 6 in.

33 ft 3.9 in.

12 ft 2.1 in.

9 ft 8 in.

7 ft 2.3 in.

7 ft 10.4 in.

9 ft 7 in.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Armstrong Flight Research Center

P.O. Box 273

Edwards, California 93523

NASA Facts