A small cadre of mid-grade Pentagon officers — the “renegades,” some call them — are arguing for a light attack capability for the U.S. Air Force.
“We had more time on station than the big fighters and unlike them we could operate under cloud cover and in tough terrain that might have deterred a larger jet.”
Believing the United States will find itself fighting in Third World trouble spots for years to come, they want the Air Force to have its own squadrons of a warplane in the category of today’s Sierra Nevada Corp./Embraer A-29B Super Tucano or Beechcraft AT-6 Texan II.
A formation of Cessna A-37Bs of the 757th Special Operations Group, Air Force Reserve. The A-37B Dragonfly was an example of the U.S. Air Force getting the light attack concept right. U.S. Air Force photo
The light attack concept has been under study since the 1950s, but in the opinion of many the Air Force only got it right once – during the Vietnam War with the Cessna A-37B Dragonfly.
“Our troops on the ground were glad when the aircraft coming to help them was an A-37,” said retired Lt. Col. Dennis Selvig, who piloted A-37Bs with the 604th Special Operations Squadron (SOS) at Bien Hoa from March 1970 to March 1971. “The bigger fighters were less able to help them out of a tight spot. We had more time on station than the big fighters and unlike them we could operate under cloud cover and in tough terrain that might have deterred a larger jet.”
CESSNA A-37B DRAGONFLY
Type: Two-seat fighter and attack aircraft
Powerplant: Two 2,850-lb (1293-kg) thrust General Electric J85-GE-17A turbojet engines
Performance: Maximum speed at 16,000 ft (4875 m) 524 mph (834 km/h); maximum cruising speed at 25,000 ft (7620 m) 489 mph; range with maximum payload, including 4,100 lb (1860 kg) of external weapons, 460 miles (740 km)
Weights: Empty equipped 6,211 lb (2817 kg); maximum takeoff 14,000 lb (6350 kg)
Dimensions: Span 35 ft 10-1/2 in (10.93 m); length 28 ft 3-1/2 in (8.62 m) without refueling probe; height 8 ft 10-1/2 in (2.71 m); wing area 183 sq ft (17.98 sq m)
Armament: One .30 cal. (7.62mm) GAU-2B/A Mini-gun; typically up to 5,000 lb (12268 kg) of Mark 82 500-lb (227-kg) or heavier bombs, napalm, or air-to-ground rocket projectile
First flight: Oct. 22, 1963 (YAT-37D); May 2, 1967 (A-37A); circa May 1, 1968 (A-37B)
- Oliver GrantThe Air Force never uses a light airplane unless it has to, and then gets rid of it as soon as that war is over. Super Hornet is overkill for Afghanistan.
- Peter Montreuil · Citizen Service Officer at Canadian GovernmentA well written article on a little known aircraft. Very informative.
- Nate Wilburn · Top Commenter · Great Falls, MontanaI am one of the people who mixed up the T-37 Tweety and the A-37 Dragonfly. I never really considered they were so much different. I have been near many Tweets and had my ear drums rattled out my backside and always assumed they were the same screaming engines on the Dragonfly. Sounds like the Dragonfly was a hard core no nonsense mini-slugger.
- Nate Wilburn · Top Commenter · Great Falls, MontanaI am one of the people who mixed up the T-37 Tweety and the A-37 Dragonfly. I never really considered they were so much different. I have been near many Tweets and had my ear drums rattled out my backside and always assumed they were the same screaming engines on the Dragonfly. Sounds like the Dragonfly was a hard core no nonsense mini-slugger.
- Luiz Oliveira · Works at EmbraerThe E314 Super Tucano stands to the E312 Tucano trainer just in the same way as the A-37 to the T-37;.
- Hank HoffmanThe A-37 was an unwanted stepchild for the AF. It was subsonic and low tech, but they were running out of A-1s, the only other real close air support bomber they had and they ikind of hid their accomplishments, like the 1311 sorties we had one month, while touting the 600 they got from an F-4 squadron. But the ground troops and the FACs knew the bird for what it could do. Accurate close air support!
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