The SA-32T was developed by Ed Swearingen from his Swearingen SX-300 piston-engined homebuilt aircraft on behalf of the Jaffe Aircraft Corporation, who hoped to sell it as a relatively low-cost military trainer.[1] [2] The resulting design was a low-wing cantilever monoplane, with a mainly metal structure, but with composite engine cowlings and tips of wings and tails. Skin thicknesses were increased by 50% compared with the SX300 to make the airframe stronger. A laminar flow wing was used, which was claimed to give jet-like handling capabilities, while hardpoints could be fitted to allow weapons to be carried.[2] The pilot and instructor sat side by side under a bubble canopy, with provision for ejector seats to be fitted. It had a retractable nosewheel undercarriage. The prototype was powered by a single Allison 250-B17D turboprop engine driving a three-bladed propeller.
A single prototype was built by Swearingen Aircraft Corporation, making its first flight on 31 May 1989, which was displayed at the Paris Air Show in June that year.[3] The design was offered to the United States Air Force as a replacement for its aging Cessna T-37 Tweet trainers, and to West Germany and Turkey.[2] In 1990, a version with tandem seating rather than the side-by-side seating of the prototype was proposed.[4] Development of the SA-32T had been abandoned by 1992, although as of January 2016, the prototype is still registered as airworthy by the Federal Aviation Administration.[5]