The T-76, the next generation basic trainer of the HCSAF, has made it's first flight. The T-76 is based on the A-85NT and is said to be a very pleasant and forgiving aeroplane to fly. This marks the T-76 out as rather different to the plane it is intended to replace the T-75. The T-75 is rather notorious in being hard to fly (though this has resulted in HCSAF pilots being rather good). Production is due to begin next year of the T-76 as the HCSAF are keen to replace the ageing T-75 fleet as soon as they can.
In other training news a two-seat training version of the F-45 is being mooted to replace the two-seat version of the F-40. These serve as advanced jet / conversion / weapon trainers in the HCSAF but the TF-40s were built fairly early in the F-40's production run and are now getting rather old. A TF-45 may tide the F-45 production line over until 2114 when the C/K is due to begin production.
