Originally Posted by UAL T38 Phlyer

USMC:

True. We had a T-38 here about 2003 land gear-up (had to; he had sheared a main off at KJAN, by touching down short of the runway!!)

First, it was surprising how far he slid after touchdown....about 3500 ft. I looked at the jet the next day in the hangar. Surprisingly little skin damage was done to the fuselage. The checklist calls for landing on the speedbrake (belly, forward of the wing) and flaps. Speedbrake is a heavy chunk of metal, flaps are thin-skinned.

The speedbrake had been ground half-off, through the hydraulic attach point, until it allowed the nose to fall. The flaps? Only the bottom 3 inches were affected, and at that, not ground-off---just bent backwards. Just the opposite of what I had expected.

It cost some money, but it was flying about 6 months later.