AIRCRAFT
KAI T-50 Golden Eagle
SCALE & KIT
1/48, Wolfpack
MODELER
Hong Hwan Jang
HISTORY
The KAI T-50 Golden Eagle is a family of South Korean supersonic advanced jet trainers and light combat aircraft, developed by Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) with Lockheed Martin.[1] The T-50 is South Korea’s first indigenous supersonic aircraft and one of the world’s few supersonic trainers.[4] Development began in the late 1990s, and its maiden flight occurred in 2002. The aircraft entered active service with the Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) in 2005.
The T-50 has been further developed into aerobatic and combat variants, namely T-50B, TA-50, and FA-50. A F-50 single-seat multirole fighter variant was considered before being cancelled. The T-50B serves with the South Korean air force’s aerobatics team.
The T-50 has been ordered by a number of countries and entered into service in some of them. Iraq ordered 24 planes in a T-50IQ variant in 2013, and received them in 2016. The TA-50 light attack variant have also been ordered by Indonesia in 2011, with 16 planes entering Indonesian service by 2014; an additional 6 were ordered in 2021. The Philippines ordered 12 units of the FA-50 light fighter variant in 2014, delivered over the next few years, and the country is considering ordering another batch of 12 planes. Thailand ordered 12 units of the T-50 advanced trainer variant (T-50TH) starting in 2015. In 2022, Poland ordered 48 FA-50s.
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