KAI T-50 Golden Eagle

what is it?

The KAI T-50 Golden Eagle (Korean: 골든이글) is a family of advanced, supersonic, South Korean jet trainers, light combat aircraft, light strike fighters and multirole light fighters developed by Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) with Lockheed Martin. It is South Korea's first indigenous supersonic aircraft and one of the world's few supersonic trainers. Development of the T-50 began in the late 1990s, and its maiden flight occurred in 2002.

🔎How to recognise it: 1 jet engine · 9.5 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 1,840 km/htop speed
• range 1,851 kmwithout refuelling
• size 10.7 tmax take-off weight
• built 200made in total

Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).

fun facts

• 🎂First flew 24 years ago, in 2002.
• 🏎️Top speed is 14.2× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 💥Faster than sound: up to Mach 1.5 (sea-level speed of sound ≈ 1,235 km/h).
• 🚗Wingspan of 9.5 m: about 2 cars parked nose to tail.
• 🌍Range of 1,851 km: 10× Amsterdam to Brussels.
• 🏔️Can fly 1.7× higher than Mount Everest (8,849 m).

jet: Gas turbine pushing air out the back (turbofan or turbojet): fast and high-flying.

spec sheet

first flight

2002-08-20

introduced

2005

status

still flying

number built

200

role

combat training aircraft

origin

🇰🇷 South Korea

makers

Korea Aerospace Industries

engines

1× General Electric F404-GE-102 / General Electric F404

crew

2

length

13.1 m

wingspan

9.5 m

height

4.8 m

max take-off weight

10.7 t

top speed

1,840 km/h

range

1,851 km

ceiling

14,630 m

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.