WASHINGTON -- The Air Force's fleet of T-38 Talons will receive replacement parts because of a fatal air crash in Mississippi.

Meanwhile, the jets, primarily used to train pilots, will keep flying.

Investigators discovered a broken lever in the wing was at the root of a T-38 crash that killed two pilots April 23 at Columbus Air Force Base.

So the Air Force is installing stronger levers in its 538 T-38s at a cost of about $1.076 million for new parts.

Officials will ground T-38s without new levers -- which are involved in moving key flight controls -- by Nov. 1.

"Because most of the levers are well past their original design life, it was determined they all needed to be replaced with newly manufactured levers to further significantly reduce risk of another failure," Lt. Col. Lloyd Addison of Hill Air Force Base in Utah said.

The Air Force has inspected levers on T-38s, replacing suspect parts, said Addison, 506th Aircraft Sustainment Squadron Commander and T-37 and T-38 system program manager.

"The part is being replaced because of fatigue cracks," he said in an e-mail.

The plane crashed in Mississippi because the aileron actuator servovalve lever broke, causing the T-38 to go into an uncontrollable roll, said Capt. John Severns, spokesman for Air Education and Training Command at Randolph Air Force Base.

The aileron controls the aircraft's roll, Severns said.

The Air Force has a 90-day window beginning Aug. 1 to get new levers in the planes, Addison said.

"For the moment we're confident in the safety of all these aircraft, and we're continuing to fly them," Severns said.

A military analyst said he thinks the Air Force is being prudent.

"That's probably a fairly ambitious schedule to get all these new controls installed," said Paul Taibl, a former Air Force pilot and vice president for policy for the nonpartisan Business Executives for National Security.

The top AETC official said the Air Force considered grounding the aircraft until new levers were in place.

"In making this decision we weighed the risk of flying with that of not flying -- including the loss of pilot proficiency," Gen. Stephen R. Lorenz, AETC commander, said in a written commentary.

The Air Force has stopped moving flight controls on the ground without power because the levers suffer high stress under those conditions, Lorenz said.

Each aircraft has two of the levers -- a right and left, Addison said. They are among hundreds of parts that link the pilot's control stick input and move the aircraft's aileron control surface.

Hill Air Force Base officials are working with the Defense Logistics Agency to buy more than 1,000 lever sets, he said. The agency has sent purchase requests to the Air Force's three depots as well as the Navy's Jacksonville Depot.

Each new lever costs $1,000, Addison said.

Maintenance personnel at T-38 Air Force bases -- Sheppard, Randolph, Columbus, Laughlin and Vance -- will install the new levers, Addison said.

The 80th Flying Training Wing at Sheppard in Wichita Falls is awaiting delivery of new levers to begin installation, said John Ingle, 80th Flying Training Wing spokesman.

The levers did not play a part in the May 1 T-38 crash at Sheppard Air Force Base that killed an instructor and a student pilot. Instructor pilot error caused the crash.