U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy Lockheed RT-33 reconnaissance plane forced down by an Albanian
MiG-15 in December 1957, on display in
Gjirokastër, Albania Lockheed NT-33A The two-place T-33 proved suitable as an advanced trainer, and it was used for such tasks as drone director and target towing. A reconnaissance version known as the
RT-33A with a camera installed in the nose and additional equipment in the rear cockpit was also produced. The USAF began phasing the T-33 out of front-line pilot training duties in the
Air Training Command in the early 1960s, as the newer
Cessna T-37 Tweet and
Northrop T-38 Talon trainers began replacing it for the Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT) program. The T-33 was used to train cadets from the Air Force Academy at Peterson Field (now Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs). The T-37 replaced the T-33 for Academy training in 1975. The final T-33 used in advanced training was replaced 8 February 1967 at
Craig AFB, Alabama. Similar replacement also occurred in the
U.S. Navy with the TV-1 (also renamed T-33 in 1962), as more advanced aircraft such as the
North American T-2 Buckeye and
Douglas TA-4 Skyhawk II came on line. USAF and USN versions of the T-33 soldiered on into the 1970s and 1980s with USAF and USN as utility aircraft and proficiency trainers, with some of the former USN aircraft being expended as full-scale aerial targets for air-to-air missile tests from naval aircraft and surface-to-air missile tests from naval vessels. Several T-33s were assigned to USAF
McDonnell F-101 Voodoo,
Convair F-102 Delta Dagger, and
Convair F-106 Delta Dart units, to include similarly equipped
Air National Guard units, of the
Aerospace Defense Command as proficiency trainers and practice "bogey" aircraft. Others later went to
Tactical Air Command, and TAC gained
Air National Guard F-106 and
McDonnell-Douglas F-4 Phantom II units in a similar role until they were retired, with the last being an NT-33 variant retired in April 1997. T-33A The
Indonesian Air Force received 19 unarmed T-33A in 1973 to supplant the
Aero L-29 Delfin trainers. Several aircraft were later rearmed with two machine guns, gunsight taken from scrapped
Il-28 bombers, and bomb racks taken from retired
B-25 Mitchell. The rearmed T-33s were deployed to
East Timor to conduct
counter-insurgency strikes in 1976. During 1980, the Indonesian Air Force retired the last of their T-33s. The
RT-33A version, reconnaissance aircraft produced primarily for use by foreign countries, had a camera installed in the nose and additional equipment in the rear cockpit. T-33s continued to fly as currency trainers, drone towing, combat and tactical simulation training, "hack" aircraft, electronic countermeasures, and warfare training and test platforms right into the 1980s. In the 1980s, an attempt was made to modify and modernize the T-33 as the
Boeing Skyfox, but a lack of orders led to the project's cancellation. About 70% of the T-33's airframe was retained in the Skyfox, but it was powered by two
Garrett AiResearch TFE731-3A turbofan engines. In the late 1990s, 18 T-33 Mk-III and T-33 SF-SC from the Bolivian Air Force went to Canada to be modernized at Kelowna Flightcraft. New avionics were installed, and detailed inspection and renewal of the fuselage and wings were performed. Most of the aircraft returned in early 2001 and remained operational until the type was officially retired on 31 July 2017. On 21 June 1996, 1 T-33A-5-LO (trainer TR-602) from the Hellenic Air Force piloted by Squadron Leader Ioannis Kouratzoglou successfully intercepted a Turkish F-16C violating Athens FIR by engaging in low-altitude high-G maneuvers.
Civilian use . A few T-33s have been owned privately, with two used by Boeing as chase aircraft. In 2010, one of Boeing's T-33s was used as a chase aircraft during the maiden flight of the
Boeing 787. The maiden flight of the Boeing 737 MAX-7 on 16 March 2018 also featured a T-33 chase plane. The maiden flight of the
Boeing 777-9 on 25 January 2020, also featured a T-33 chase plane, taking off from
KBFI and meeting the 777-9 at
KPAE, it stopped at
KMWH and it took off again to chase the 777-9 on its way back to KBFI, flying around Mount Rainier before their landing. On 4 December 2020, Boeing retired their T-33 chase planes after 66 years of service. Both T-33s operated by Boeing were replaced by a single
T-38 Talon. Actor and pilot
Michael Dorn owned a T-33, which he jokingly referred to as his "starship". ==Variants==