The following might be of interest.
That rather interesting aspect of the T-33 saga began during the 1970s. It was indeed at that time that a (retired?) American test pilot, Russell Patrick O’Quinn, came to the conclusion that a versatile and relatively inexpensive combat aircraft could be of interest to the air forces of developing countries, and even to the USAF. Aware of the fact that the T-33 was a machine which was both obsolete and available in large numbers (1 000 to 1 500 in more or less in flying condition?), O’Quinn conceived the idea of developing a modernised version of said machine.
Drawing on that idea, O’Quinn contacted the Italian government and / or the Italian air force but the parties failed to come to an agreement. He then contacted American aircraft manufacturers, including Lockheed Aircraft, but they were unable, or unwilling, to help him financially.
In 1981, O’Quinn met an American geologist and businessman involved in a few light / private aircraft modification projects during the 1970s. Gilman A. Hill agreed to invest in O’Quinn’s project. Together they founded Flight Concepts Limited Partnership, an entity in which the duo was both sponsoree and sponsorer. In 1982, O’Quinn began creating a team of retired Lockheed Aircraft engineers familiar with the T-33. Said team then began the development of a highly modernised twin-engine version of the aircraft.
Flight Concepts Limited Partnership might, I repeat might, have become Flight Concepts in 1982, but the firm apparently changed its name to Skyfox no later than 1984.
A prototype of the Flight Concepts / Skyfox Skyfox flew in August 1983. The firm behind it made a point of trumpeting that the performance of that machine was comparable to that of modern training aircraft while costing half as much. It could also perform ground attack missions.
The Skyfox prototype was apparently a Canadian-made Canadair T-33 Silver Star.
In 1983, Flight Concepts / Skyfox received a letter of intent from a Portuguese state agency, Oficinas Gerais de Material Aeronáutico (OGMA), concerning the conversion of 20 T-33s that the Força Aérea Portuguesa (FAP) was considering having carried out.
The catch was that no one else came knocking on Skyfox’s door, and this even though the aircraft attracted quite a lot of attention at airshows. Indeed, the Skyfox was central to the plot of an episode of the first season (1984) of the American action military drama television series Airwolf. The crew of a high-tech military helicopter, the Airwolf of the title, obviously managed to prevent an American Vietnam War pilot from stealing a high-tech American military prototype to give it to the USSR, and this in order to save the son he had fathered during his stay in South Vietnam.
The difficulties of Skyfox, the corporation, and its Skyfox aircraft did not put an end to the project, however. The military subsidiary of the American aerospace giant Boeing began to take an interest in the latter in 1985. Indeed, Boeing Military Airplane (BMA) acquired the exclusive production rights even before the end of the year. The firm believed that customers should be given the option to buy conversion kits they could use to convert T-33s into Skyfoxes on their own soil, or to have BMA take care of that work. The problem was that no one came knocking on the door of BMA. Even the FAP and OGMA decided not to engage further.
BMA withdrew from the project in 1988, much to the chagrin of Skyfox’s management, which sued its former partner, alleging that the latter had neither invested the promised sums nor seriously tried to find customers. The outcome of that lawsuit was a victory for BMA.
Despite everything, Skyfox’s management still hoped to find another partner in 1991. Indeed, it stated that the Air Command of the Canadian Forces had shown, or might still be showing, some interest, if not a real interest. In past years, the same might, I repeat might, have been true of the South Korean and / or Greek air forces.
In the end, Skyfox’s hopes and efforts led nowhere.
en.m.wikipedia.org
