I remember seeing a couple of F-5C models that were being sent to Vietnam back in 1965 when I was an E3 at McConnell AFB, KS. We had a ramp full of F105D/Fs and Guard F100D/Fs. The small, sleek profile of the F-5 stood in sharp contrast to the older, larger aircraft. The thought that I would fly the T-38B in pilot training a decade and a half later never entered my mind at the time. I would have jumped at the chance to fly the F-5...but that wasn't to be. The AF is looking for a replacement for its aging T-38 trainers. A single engine version of the T-38 using the more powerful engine from the F-5E would make an excellent and cost-effective replacement.
I had personally flight the F-5E later upgrade to F-5S by Singapore own ST Aerospace... can verify that it is indeed a good low cost light fighter... especially its capability of flying low... making it able to avoid radar detection by ground base radar... ;)
I spent a considerable amount of time over 3 years, getting in and out of the cockpit, while doing daily inspections; which including running the camera system, ehen the interchangeable photo reconaissance system was attached to the CF-5. I was the crew chief. We used the aircraft battery power to activate either a single camera or all 3; to check the functionlity, either daily during the evening shift, or every time a new magazine was installed in any one of the 3 vinten 70mm film cameras, installed in any of 11 configurations. My favorite fighter aircraft, by far; I had previously worked on the CF-104 photo systen (an underbelly pod also with 3 cameras); and previously with the F-86 gun camera system,.
My favorite aircraft. Such a unique fighter. The USAF dropped the ball on this one. Would of done great as a US fighter in Vietnam against the MIG17 and MIG21.
The F-5A and F-5C flew many missions over North Vietnam, where they were trying to engage any fighters they could face. However the North Vietnamese often grounded all airborne planes when they detected any F-5’s in the area. That is the reason no fighter jets were shot down by F-5 in its entire service throughout the Vietnam conflict.
My deceased husband, Len Wilson, flew in the original Skoshi Tiger program in 1965. Unfortunately he was killed in an F5 (a 2 seat trainer) in Morocco a couple years later.
These F-5's supplemented Hawker Hunters in Switzerland. Glorious aircraft for all purposes and you could throw any mission at it. Sadly, today, 2021, there are only a few left in operation. We borrowed some to Austria and sold a lot of them in the last 10 years. However, the Patrouille Suisse, our aerobatics team, still use them for the foreseeable future.
Corvallito As a kid one of the very first models I built was an F-16 with an ANG squadron markings, my first love and closely followed by the English Electric lightning as my second model!! I dont know where I saw the F-5 first but it just reminded me of the F-16, simplicity and full of purpose, it looked like a "proper" fighter.
i heard some lady say that the F-5 has a problem with its inverted flight tanks - it wont do a negative G pushover. Also I heard a bald navy officer say that these planes carry the Exocet anti-ship missle, which can be fired from 100 miles away.
A Chaps Well the Exocet had it’s own onboard radar, weighed just under 1,500 lbs, and was just over 1 foot in diameter. It could fit on the centerline pylon of the F-5 (which was rated for 6,000 lbs) so in theory it could carry the Exocet. However, nobody ever explored this possibility beyond the concept stage.
As well as the "Aggressor" squadron for PACAF. They were home-based at Kadena AB, Okinawa. I loved when they came to fly DACT at Kunsan AB. Their combat camo was a treat to see. :D
Personally know a man who once flew an F-5A for the Iranian Air Force and has one Iraqi MiG-21 downed and a number of successful low level bombing runs to his credit. Was forced to leave along with the Shah's 'political' regime, and much of the Shah-loyal senior Iranian military leadership, when the revolution neared its unfortunate end. Today, he works a counter at a local grocery store...not because he's financially destitute or otherwise has to, but because he's just one of those types of people who enjoys working and the less prejudiced social networking that takes place at a workplace. Don't take it for granted that even the seemingly most humble person, some man wearing a grocery store apron, can have a story that absolutely blows the mind.
factually speaking sorry to say but your friends story dose not make sense. The Shah, was deposed and left Iran in 1979 the war with Iraq was not in progress at that time so how did he shoot down an Iraqi Mig-21 and bombing runs before the Iran Iraq war started? You said he left Iran when the Shah did.
The war started in 1980 with full aerial combat ,the pilot might have taken part in combat and left after increasing pressure from the revolutionary guards as a lot of Shah era pilots were considered part of the old elite loyal to the Shah. Factually speaking didnt mean that the pilot left on the same day with the royal family.
I never like induge in any political or religious hate. I am indian and reside in Austria. I was in Iran 2 times. very intelligent and very friendly people.
This is by far, the best looking supersonic fighter jet in the US arsenal. Reminds of a sports car with it's sleek lines and handling characteristics. I'm sure Northrop knew they were designing an airplane of the future when they drew up this sexy machine.
Indeed a great aircraft for the money back then. Veristile, easy to maintain, can handle beautifully. F-5 was so good it was used in the agressor role training for USAF. Still in use by several countries (they got their money's worth). F-20 would have been good to. I don't think there really is an aircraft that for the money could compare with it. I hate to say it but I think the only other aircraft made today that is anywhere similar to F5 and or F20 in performance per price is the chinese J-17 Thunder.
Fascinating report on this elegant and, ultimately, very successful aircraft. Hats off to the folk at Northrop who had the confidence to back their own analysis of what attributes would appeal to many overseas air forces, despite constant criticism by their own USAF. The final piece of analysis in this report supports what used to be the soviet strategy: large numbers of low cost weapons can prevail over small numbers of expensive, high technology machines.
For around $60, y'all can get DCS - F-5E, a high fidelity flight sim modeling this aircraft. It is as close as you can get to flying one: without leaving your comfy armchair behind. (provided your computer can handle it)
While cruising on US-1, the Overseas Highway to Key West, I can swear a squadron of F-5s overflew toward Boca Chita. They were painted in some weird camouflage. Then throughout the 90s buildings that appeared to be barracks with a painted big red five-pointed star. I saw individual units or in pairs, rarely did the entire squadron move in force. They were DACT operating those F-5s and the limit at their performance. I'm guessing the last of the production line.
They are still flying F-5s from Naval Air Station, Boca Chica. They are the aggressor squadron for the Top Gun school there, generally against F/A-18s. I watch 'em every day. Semper Fi !
What a beautiful airframe. From a time when simplicity and pilot skill was enough. notice how when they weren't trying too hard and they thought they were just building a trainer... It ends up being such an effective tool in its role.
Not sure if they still have them, possibly relegated to training as a lead-in fighter but the RoKAF had a bunch at Suwon AFB in the mid 70's when I delivered some documents that had to be hand-carried. Nice birds. Saw some on the asphalt that appeared to be their QR(alert) planes, had Sidewinders and possibly GAU-61 20mm pods slung alongside wing tanks. Reason I think they were QR is because I saw the same setup at 1 of our bases there also.
The F 5 was basically a T38 trainer w/ removal of the front seat.It was inexpensive because The T38 was first built in the late 50's and there were plenty of parts and tooling was plentiful I was a flightline mechanic for 4 yrs on the T38..
It could match the F-16 in a dogfight, but could beat in-terms of radar and BVR-capability. Only thing the F-16 beat the Tigershark with has to do with amount of weapons you could fit on the wings...
Because several rich European nations loved it so much and kept it so long in service, I had no idea, this project was on ht brink of never existing, amazing! Actually, when I think of it, there have been several small, simple, but effective and successful British and American aeroplanes, that started as private ventures. Not sure if we ever see something like that ever again, because of forbiddingly high development costs these days (computer models do save money on prototypes, but doesn't seem to help that much for some reason), unless something like "Scaled Composites" "Ares"project actually makes it beyond prototype stage.
This is one of the reasons I love the Northrop aircraft company.. The F-5 is one of the koolest-looking fighter jets ever... It's one of the biggest success stories in aviation history! In ways, the F-5 Tiger II was thee best Jet Fighter EVER for the money and performance!
I knew the F5 was an awesome little plane but not that much, still one of the best looking birds ever built in my opinion.The little plane that could 👍👍
The Aerospace Facility where I have worked for over 36 years (DoD Security), we had several contracts with the Nationalist Chinese in Taiwan to build product systems for the F5. We were on the ground floor for the F20 when the USA cut off all military sales to Taiwan in the early 1980's. I remember how we worked around the clock to ship F5 (F20) parts and systems to the Nationalist Chinese Air Force before the deadline. The F5 was a fantastic aircraft, very maneuverable and fairly inexpensive to produce. Although subsonic the F5 could dogfight quite well against anything the Communist Chinese were flying at the time. The price was right for any upcoming Air Forces to afford and the pilot training was relatively easy. I've been to dozens of Air Shows in my decades with the DoD and was always happy when they had a couple of F5's flying. A good, solid aircraft that was under rated but had its place in many Air Forces. I have good memories of the F20 "Tigershark" and felt let down when Northrop dropped the programs.
Always thought there was something menacing about the profile of the F5...it's combination of a flowing fuselage with sharp, angular wings and stabilizers. Perhaps because I've seen it painted black with red stars, posing as a Soviet aircraft in so many movies...who knows.
Simple, but effective, and extremely capable. Can't help but wonder why these weren't fielded next to the F-16 as air superiority fighters -- especially the F5E/F variants.
truly beautiful plane, they used to chase our rockets too. they have one in huntsville, at the rocket center, government contractors, dont like cheap planes, awesome plane, awesome money is how it works
Dan Cutler because somebody's getting paid graft money. How do think these generals are all multi millionaires??? Come on, follow the money... They're ALL on the take!
Great little agile fighter , it's biggest victim was an Iraqi Mig-25 Foxbat shot down by an Iranian F-5 E during the Iran Iraq war . The Foxbat was already crippled by an Iranian Tomcat and was heading home with her tail between her legs where her luck ran out as it was intercepted by the F-5 E on a bombing raid mission , they decided to take the foxbat on instead and shot her down .
What a great doc. You have to love any fighter that can take off and land on basically a plowed, bumpy field. What a mistake to cancel the F-20. Not only did it have the artillery, but painted in black, it looked menacing; almost evil. Imagine a squadron of 20 black F-20's...
i'm disappointed that the most famous users of this aircraft, again miss out on their due recognition for services to "freedom" and "democracy"...........roger ramjet and his men...i salute you.
Modern warfare favors productivity values. higher losses are not as much of a problem. More can be made quicker than high value/quality types. We are forgetting the lessons of the past. Then again our conflicts have been on a smaller scale against lesser opponents. Nice vid a truly great plane. Thanks.
Bruno Gray I agree. I've been thinking this for a while. We forget the lessons of the past over and over again. Every generation thinks they got it figured out and the lessons of the past don't apply to them anymore.
Would love to have seen the F 5 / T38 / F20 take on a Mig 15, 17 or 21 ! It is still an ADVERSARY JET , that F 14, 15, 16 , 16s was matched agaist like the a4 skyhawk
you should REALLY look at DCS flight sim.....just got the f5e....and have had the mig 21 for a while. this is NOT a war thunder flight sim.....every button is clickable, every system is fully modeled to the DASH 1 specs.
sab287Leporidae it is, and isnt. you get 2 free planes...tf-51d and su-25t. then everything else....from f15, su 27, to mig 21, f5-e, mig 21....costs money. but try it out.....like i said, 2 free ones to get the feel of what DCS is all about (realism) but, most of it are all fully clickable cockpits...like the TF-51.....so every switch you can click on and do stuff with. the military used a version (with classified stuff still in it) of DCS for thjeir a-10c drivers. then they took out all the classified stuff and made DCS for the public. stuff like the f-15, su-27, mig 29 and su-25t arnt clickable...at all, however. but they are priced at 10 bucks each, or like 30 for the "flaming cliffs 3" bundel. flaming cliffs was a different game than DCS....but ran on the same engine. they merged DCS and FC3 into one big game recently.... but every new plane is fully clickable.... thats the games clam to fame.
auta ta dialisame h ta exoume se efedria vevea einai palio san to f 104 alla toulaxiston tous koursarous na xoume se efedria pernoun kai napalm nomizo kanena allo aroplano mas den pernei pleon napalm
It was an under-rated jet because it was a lightweight fighter which meant that it had limitations to multi-roles. Its derivative the F-20 Tigershark was an even more manovreable fighter but by then more modern fighters were already in development adopting new sleek framework while the F-20 was still using the F-5 frame. Because of this it was unable to secure any foreign buyer even though the new plane was also using fly-by-wire. What a waste.
Canada should have kept the CF-5's and salvaged the F-20 program. It would be cheaper, and very capable. And it's price would have been good, and easier for crews and pilots.
These carry the exocet anti-ship missiles capable of firing them 10 miles away this is what you've been trained for this is the real thing! In regards to Maverick is he the best man for the I know what you're going to say stow it
《☆》《☆》《☆》love this fighter . iam sad that our Government didnt buy it for our Luftwaffe for the role of groundattacks in the time of cold war. much better investment than the f 104 g starfighter wich has so much loses in the Luftwaffe
This episode is from the Great Planes series. Come visit the Great Planes / Wings Database for more information and links to all the videos. myplace.frontier.com/~usnraptor/Great_Planes Originally called Great Planes, the Wings series initially aired Wednesdays and Saturdays on the Discovery Channel in the U.S. from 9-10 p.m. Eastern beginning in 1988 and into the early 1990s.
Regarding dogfighting and maneuverability; "Under these circumstances the F5 can outfly anything in the sky". I assume that includes the excellent MiG21 that gave US fighters so much trouble in Vietnam.
The example given by the F-5 would lead to the development of the F-16 Falcon in the late 1970's; with its improved computer assistance, fly-by-wire controls, and tactical accuracy in ground support and /or bombing missions. The F-16 continues in use today by the USAF and many of the USAs Allies, including the Air Forces of the former Communist Satellite countries in Europe. The Belgians, Danes, Dutch, and Greeks, among many others, all use F-16s. The Israeli's used F-16s to take out the Iraqi nuclear facility in Baghdad in 1981. The undeniable success of the F-5 concept was a given; it gave up to date modern air force capability to small countries with even smaller budgets. The lesson learned was, there was no lack of use for an excellent aircraft at low cost of purchase and simplicity of maintenance. The ultimate plane was the Northrop F-20; unfortunately, no F-20s were ever sold. Eventually, the F-5 became key to the success of the Air Force equivalent of the Navy's "Top Gun" training, known as "Red Flag" based at Nellis AFB near Las Vegas, NV.
I don't understand why the RCAF doesn't continue to fly these for advanced tactical jet training, dissimilar air combat training, and as a lead-in fighter trainer. We have (or had) 140 of them plus spare engines, and parts, many hardly used, sent to mothball from the factory. TacAir a private company uses them for flight training.
+Brad Johnson Because Canada has no balls! Almost everything Canada does is given the nod by Washington first. The CF5 was an excellent, all-round fighter and ground attack fighter, but, politics gets in the way of everything. We should have purchased 200 of the more advanced Tigersharks, and maybe 50 to 70 F-18 Hornets. The Hornets we purchased are obsolete by 15 years, more than half are mothballed and cannibalized to keep the rest in the air, and we wont be finished paying for them until 2018.
Well we shouldn't have bought Tiger sharks as we had our own manufacturing facilities for Canadair CF-5s, though perhaps we could have upgraded what we had to the Tigershark level. I like the Hornets, which are certainly better than the CF-5, it is just the CF-5s had a lot of useful life left in them, and they are much cheaper to operate. The thing that pisses me off the most is we spent millions upgrading them to advanced trainers that would be flying simulators for Hornets. A perfect idea as the T-38/F-5 is the most commonly used advanced trainer in the world. Used by the US Airforce, US Navy, US Marines and many other advanced countries. So to say they were too old and obsolete is completely ignorant. So we had 40 two seat trainers upgraded to the latest avionics in 1995. 15 get sold to Botswana for about 5 million each. That is actually not a bad price, but we gave them the very best of our inventory. In 2000 a 1.77 billion dollar deal is made to lease 22 BAE Hawks for 20 years. Counting for maintenance that works out to at least 40 million dollars per plane. At this time we still had 25 CF-5s with fully modern avionics just for this purpose. Also the Hawk is no more modern than a CF-5 and the performance of the Hawk is much lower than the CF-5 in almost every way. So basically we sold off a high performance advanced trainer for 5 million, to buy a low performance advanced trainer for 40 million. Even though we had 25 that we had not even sold yet. The CF-5 also has the advantage of being a decent fighter. In flight combat schools the F-5s are used as aggressors, experienced trainer pilots routinely destroy trainees flying F-18s, F-16s and F-15s with ease. Not saying it is better than those aircraft, but in the right hands it can be just as deadly in the right circumstances. Brazil and Turkey still use these as front line fighters even though they can afford better aircraft.
+ThePennyPincher Wouldn't say everything. Washington wanted us to buy the F15, but it had no air-to-ground capability and was less rugged. The robust, reinforced, carrier-oriented undercarriage of the F/A-18 meant that it could land under far rougher conditions, a major factor in Canada's harsh climate (where an aircraft must truly prove what it can endure, unlike those parked in dry, sunny Arizona).
Merely Correct Yes, the F-18 has been a great aircraft for Canada, even though on paper it the F-15 would seem to be the better choice. A little more range would be nice, but an aircraft reinforced for Navy use is tough as nails.
Brad Johnson Plus, most F15 airframes then-available for purchase were already ten years old. There was more life to be had in the F/A-18 which was then-brand new in production. Another option briefly considered, and little known, was Iran's F14 fleet. After the U.S. embargo, Iran was starved for spares and Canada offered to buy their entire fleet. It fell through, however, after Canada's involvement in the hostage crisis.
The F-5 would seem to have low optical and radar observability, an asset in bringing fighters with long-range radar-guided missiles close in for a visual range dogfight.
the F-5 series was, and probably always will be now the very best series and cost effective fighter planes ever built, with the possible exception of the Spits and P-51s...and they were fans, so it stands alone boys.....say what u want, it was the best small fighter ever built....the fkng brass just had their heads up their collective buttocks.
Now I know why late President Ferdinand Marcos bought this for the Philippines air defense BACK IN THE LATE 70's, and why PAF veteran fighter pilots are more confident flying this fighter aircraft rather than the newly acquired FA/50 .
