What does the retirement of an airplane that was nearly 60 years old have to do with flight test today. What doesn't stand out very much in the article at the link below is that this airplane was used to prepare nearly every USN/USMC flight test aviator for the work that test teams are doing today. The plane was used for departure and spin training at USNTPS, and I can testify first-hand that it could turn the pilots "every which way but loose" in the amazing gyrations that it would enter, survive, and reliably recover from during that training.
http://www.warbirdsnews.com/warbirds-news/t-2c-buckeye-ends-56-year-navy-career.html
Want to see it in action? Visit the link below. Not shown is my favorite, the roll-coupled inverted departure ...definitely an "E-Ticket" ride. The puffs of smoke? The engines would cough, but virtually never quit, no matter what you did with the plane.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3XnBFDE_vQ
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