T-37 from A-37

You are a glutton for punishment. I recall a couple of articles in an IPMS newsletter regarding a conversion of an F-5 B into a T-38 and a conversion of the A-37 into the T-37. I'll look for the articles and/or any specifications I can find on the T37 vrs the A37. I have considered doing this conversion myself, as I like trainers. I do not recall if the A-37s were new aircraft or converted T-37s. It was an old design, but then so was the A-4, F-4, F-8, F100, etc. Interesting project.

Don, try this site; http//www.airvectors.net/avtweet.html   I think the site outlines the differences between the trainer version and the attack version. Basically the wings were two feet longer in the A version and the avionics and engines were uprated as well as the wing  (structural strength) for hard points. Air to air refueling was added also. Doing a reasonably accurate T-37 should be doable as most of the changes are internal. As a side note there was a kit of the T-37 back in the 60s (or late 50s) made by Aurora, but the RM kit is a much better candidate as the old kit was not very good and it is an expensive collectable kit. As I recall it had a lot of oversized rivets and the decal placement was etched into the plastic. Hope this helps. Please post your progress with the build.

If I remember right, the T-37 came out first:

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and was later followed by the A-37 with a minigun, a hump behind the cockpit, antennas at the leading edge of the horizontal tail, and pylons for weapons.  Later versions had a refueling probe added.  Some internal changes had to be made to make room for the minigun.

i213.photobucket.com/.../scan0012.jpg

i213.photobucket.com/.../scan0013.jpg

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Depending on how "accurate" you want to make the model, the big difference that would be difficult to accomplish is that the engine housing in the wing root was enlarged on the A-37 for more powerful engines. As far as I can tell, this shows more on the bottom than on the top, but I'm not totally sure. The swing-away grates on the intakes are FOD screens as I recall. The intakes are just a few feet off the ground on the Tweet and Dragonfly. I don't think they were installed on the trainers.

Don, I have a lot of photos of both the T-37 and the OA-37 on my website.  There is a nice Cessna 3-view with many section views on the T-37 page.  Like Paul said the grills in front on the OA-37 were FOD screens.  I don't recall any speed brakes but both had thrust attenuators in the path of the exhaust.  In the case of the T-37 the Continental J-69 had to have a quite high idle rpm in order to have acceptable acceleration characteristics so it had a lot of residual thrust at idle.  I am pretty sure the J-85 had the same issue, I know it was sensitive at high altitude to rough throttle handling but the only CJ-610/J-85 powered airplane I flew had thrust reversers.  I started the same project some years ago and again as Paul said the nacelles will be a lot of work.  If you want to go whole hog you could do a 407!

http://www.yolo.net/~jeaton/earlyjets/oa37/oa37.htm

http://www.yolo.net/~jeaton/earlyjets/t37/t37.htm

rangerj

Don, try this site; http//www.airvectors.net/avtweet.html   I think the site outlines the differences between the trainer version and the attack version. Basically the wings were two feet longer in the A version and the avionics and engines were uprated as well as the wing  (structural strength) for hard points. Air to air refueling was added also. Doing a reasonably accurate T-37 should be doable as most of the changes are internal. As a side note there was a kit of the T-37 back in the 60s (or late 50s) made by Aurora, but the RM kit is a much better candidate as the old kit was not very good and it is an expensive collectable kit. As I recall it had a lot of oversized rivets and the decal placement was etched into the plastic. Hope this helps. Please post your progress with the build.

Rangerj, I could not seem to find that site- maybe it is gone already.  My attempt merely led me to a search engine result for T-37 tweet. 

I have already shortened the wing, but still have to make new tips.  The tweet had a smaller engine- I think the intakes are the same but I will be fitting a new, slightly smaller nozzle.  Decal placement is not molded in, which is good because I need to use larger decals than what is in the kit for the national insignia, and will be doing scratch decals for the tail number and the US Airforce logo on nose.

John, I don't see the nacelles as being enough bigger to look too bad, so I am only smoothing them out on the bottom to remove the FOD screens and avionics bumps. I will, however, use the smaller tailpipe to represent the smaller engine.

I have found an amazing number of three-views and good photos with a google image search using a few variations of the search terms.  Modeling nowadays is certainly easier than in pre-google days!