All of the above things can basically describe a C-130A with 3 blade props, did we abandon that and try to invent a new tactical airlifter? No, look at the J model. This is why the Airbus attempt at a tac airlifter will probably never get sold.

All the things you say about the T-37B are true, but they are true because they are 50+ years old. Heck, the first guy to fly the plane had 100+ missions in Europe in P-47s.

The T-6 is more comfortable to fly and it is a challenge to fly well, much more so than the blunt nose 6000lb dog whistle, thanks to torque and p-factor---TAD doesn't come close to helping new studs keep the ball centered. The T-37 was easier to teach in and I think it was more fun to fly because of the more forgiving ops limits. I could do more with a point of a finger or watch how I do this, than I can in 5 mins of "blah, blah, blah, no look at your other left." Yes it was uncomfortable, but it was nearly indestructable. I often say the only reason it had ops limits were to write an unsat on a student. I doubt there is a tweet in existence that has not been flown at 200 knots with the gear, flaps and landing lights extended at the hands of a solo. And after the poor kid was told to full stop by the RSU, it probably flew 2 hours later after MX did their cursory visual inspection and raised and lowered the flaps and lights.

The airframe and aerodynamics made it a wonderful trainer. It acted like a Cessna when you needed it to---docile and forgiving, and it acted like a jet, albeit underpowered, providing intro to great high performance characteristics like a nice stall buffet that advanced to a full on rumble before it ran out off lift. Great things to learn for the advanced training to follow in the T-38. You had to learn to pull power at the right time to coast in the last few hundred feet on a rejoin, yet add power at the right time to have those engines spooled to match thrust to park it in position. The T-6 doesn't do a lot to help guys get ready for T-38s. It doesn't run out of gas, it makes energy simply by thinking about it, and you can screw up a rejoin, get rid of 30 knots in 300' with that prop, and spool and park in position without needing to overshoot. I have to take the airplane way more than I used to in the Tweet, because of the oil system limitations and sometimes feel like I watch the oil px and torque more than I watch stan.

The tweet was a very safe airplane, I can only think of three solo fatalities in the past 30 years, a female captain killed at Vance in 1980, probably an indavertant spin in the low area and no ejection attempt, a solo who got disoriented at VFR entry at Willie in 82/83 timeframe and got into some kind of stall, and the solo at Vance in September 2000 who overshot final and stalled too low to the ground to recover.

The two best trainers we ever bought were the 37/38 combo, and the best we ever were was when everyone flew those two airplanes. If we had only known in 1972 what we know now, we should have never closed the production line on either, and there should be T-38s/T-37s on the G or H suffix with little fuel efficient turbo fans, pressurization, and glass MFDs with Garmin 1000 type displays and XM satellite wx radar.