Pilots prepared last T-45 destined for NAS Kingsville. (Photo courtesy of Boeing) It seems like only yesterday when (T-45) A003 (third a/c built on the production line) was delivered to Training Air Wing Two aboard Naval Air Station Kingsville on Jan. 23, 1992.

The T-45 was fielded at TraWing Two by 10 initial cadre pilots lead by CDR (Ret) Dick “Bush Hog” Nelson and a great fleet introduction team on the government side and by Boeing employees standing up a complete training system, including the T-45A aircraft, the T-45A instrument and visual high fidelity flight simulators, electronic classrooms, computer aided instruction labs and Boeing contract maintenance for the first nine years of the program.

A013 (13th T-45A built) was the first A/C built totally in St Louis and was delivered on May 6, 1993. In the 18 years since the first delivery, there have been 815 Boeing & Customer Flights in St Louis starting with A003 on Dec. 16, 1991

T-45 taxis down Boeing runway in St. Louis. (Photo courtesy of Boeing) Last T-45 through the first flight on A221, the final production T-45 on Nov. 1, 2009.

Boeing factory flights averaged approximately 1.2 flight hours per flight for a total of 978.0 flight hours at Boeing. These flight hours do not count the delivery flights to each of the strike training bases.

Over the last 18 years, the T-45 has accumulated over 945,000 flight hours and more than 63,000 catapults and arrested landings. During that time more than 3,700 pilots have been winged in the T-45.

In Fiscal Year 2009, the T-45 replaced the T-2 for navigator training in Pensacola, Fla. and 130 navigators have received their wings in the T-45.

The T-45 has had a great safety record in any book and far better than the preceding T-2 and TA-4J aircraft, which the T-45 replaced.

Last production T-45 prepares to land here. (Photo by PAO Jon Gagne) The first 83 T-45s built were as analog T-45As. Then in Dec of 1997, the first glass cockpit T-45C was delivered to the Navy with a global positioning system and an inertial navigation system with cockpit flight instruments displayed on two multifunction glass displays and with a heads up display with a velocity vector just like the fleet aircraft instrumentation.

In fiscal year 2007, the modification line aboard NAS Kingsville started modifying T-45A aircraft and converting them to the T-45C glass cockpit aircraft.

Some 20 T-45As have been modified into T-45C aircraft so far with plans to modify nine to 12 per year until all T-45A aircraft have been modified aboard NAS Kingsville. The T-45A simulators are also being modified to the T-45C cockpit configuration.

It took a grass roots effort by Kingsville’s Dick Messbarger to sponsor the T-45 A-to-C modification through the U.S. Congress to ensure it was funded, as the first two years it was submitted by the USN for funding.

Congress cut the funding because it was a new start program, and it was looking for “bill payers” to use funding for other things.

Kingsville’s community support was a great help to the Navy to get this modification program funded and started.

The T-45 program is a great program and a safe one, and hopefully after a day of defending the country, many young men and women who learned to fly and earned their wings on these birds will come home safely every night to their families.

(Editor’s Note: Dick “Bush Hog” Nelson is a former Kingsville resident and recipient of the community’s Citizen of the Year honors. He was active in a variety of community projects while living here.)