Over 800 Sabreliners were produced, of which 200 were T-39s. The Series 65 was the last series run and 76 of them were produced, mostly for the private market.
Monsanto has the oldest continuously operating company corporate jet division starting with its purchase of a Sabreliner 40. T-39s were used in support of combat operations in Southeast Asia during the
Vietnam War. In late 1965 T-39s replaced
Martin B-57 Canberras on flights to transport high-priority cargo, such as exposed film from
photoreconnaissance missions, from outlying bases to Saigon. The original Navy version, the
T3J-1, redesignated
T-39D after the
1962 redesignation of US Navy/US Marine Corps/US Coast Guard aircraft, was initially fitted with the
radar system from the
McDonnell F3H-1 Demon all-weather fighter and used as a radar trainer for pilots of that aircraft. The T-39D aircraft was subsequently introduced into the Basic Naval Aviation Observer, later Student
Naval Flight Officer program. Three versions of the T-39D were used throughout the 1960s, '70s, and '80s: one without radar for high altitude instrument navigation training and low altitude visual navigation training in the SNFO Intermediate syllabus; a second variant equipped with the APQ-126 radar from the
LTV A-7 Corsair II for training primarily bombardier/navigators, reconnaissance attack navigators, and electronic countermeasures officers in attack aircraft; and a third variant with the APQ-94 radar for training pilots of the
Vought F-8 Crusader. The T-39N and T-39G are currently used in the NFO Strike and Strike Fighter syllabi in training US Navy and US Marine Corps student
Naval Flight Officers, as well as various
NATO/allied/coalition student navigators. Foreign students also train in the T-39 in place of the
Beechcraft T-1 Jayhawk during the Intermediate Jet syllabus. The Sabreliner requires a minimum crew of two and, depending on cabin configuration, can carry up to seven passengers (NA-265 through NA-265-40) or ten passengers (NA-265-60 and subsequent models). As a Navy flight training aircraft, it will typically fly with a pilot, one or two NFO instructors, and two to three student NFOs or student navigators/CSOs.
Al-Qaeda use Between 1993 and 1994,
Osama bin Laden reportedly owned and used a former USAF T-39A, which had been converted to civilian use and refurbished at
Van Nuys Airport. An Egyptian pilot and bin Laden proxy,
Essam al-Ridi, lawfully purchased the aircraft from a U.S. broker in
California in 1992, claiming to represent wealthy Egyptians. Al Ridi reported to have personally delivered the plane to bin Laden—who was then exiled in
Khartoum,
Sudan—in January 1993. There, the jet was reportedly used to ferry five
Al-Qaeda operatives to
Kenya to agitate tribal insurgency
against US peacekeeping troops in nearby Somalia; one of the passengers was allegedly senior bin Laden deputy
Mohammed Atef. More than a year later, around October 1994, the jet
overran the runway in
Khartoum Airport and crashed into a sand dune. The aircraft was badly damaged and subsequently abandoned due to high anticipated repair costs; both al Ridi separately claimed to have been at the controls (the aircraft is fitted with dual controls). In later years, Ali testified that, in 1995, bin Laden asked him to ram the plane against that of
Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, despite the aircraft having never been repaired after the Khartoum accident. ==Variants==