the purpose of F-5

[dinos7]

alright im curious. What exactly was the purpose of the F-5.

[Nonskimmer]

This gives a good little spiel on the subject.

http://everything2.com/index.pl?node...ode_id=1258885

[dinos7]

thanks nonskimmer!

[Nonskimmer]

The Canadian Air Force flew them for years. They were used as attack aircraft, trainers, aggressors, and testbeds. As FLYBOYJ has mentioned in other threads, many (of ours) had been fitted with F-18 avionics later on. They were decent planes that we shouldn't have sold-off so quickly.

[FLYBOYJ]

The F-5 was an attempt to build a light weight fighter, simple to fly and cheap to operate. Thanks NS! - I think the CAF probably had the best F-5s built.

The aircraft was used by many nations and made Northrop a lot of money. Even though it was developed in the late 50s - with the right pilot and avionics, could still be a worthy foe today......

[plan_D]

Too right it could. Those F-5s were remarkable machines, they could turn on a six pence!

[Parmigiano]

I vaguely remember that there was also a development of F5, named F20 (of F 56?) that was a remarkable aircraft, said to be even better than F 16.
But it was not able to score an order with USAF mainly because of standardization issues (type of engine and logistics if I remember well)

[FLYBOYJ]

I vaguely remember that there was also a development of F5, named F20 (of F 56?) that was a remarkable aircraft, said to be even better than F 16.
But it was not able to score an order with USAF mainly because of standardization issues (type of engine and logistics if I remember well)

Yep - the F-20. Northrop even got Check Yeager to market it. The US didn't buy it, but the state dept. would not allow Northrop to sell it abroad.

My father-in-law flew it once - he said it was a dream and thought it was at least a match to the F-16 (at that time, early 1980s)

[evangilder]

I once heard that the main reason they didn;t buy the F-20 was because it required less guys to keep it operational, and they didn't want to lose head count in the maintenance side of things.

[FLYBOYJ]

Probably true!

[Nonskimmer]

Ah, politics.
I suppose it makes a bit of sense from the personnel standpoint in terms of job security and all, but...still.

[evangilder]

It does kind of make sense, but it still stinks. The F-20 was a cool airplane. I always loved the T-38 and F-5.

[Nonskimmer]

You're probably not the least bit interested in this dino, but you know me. Always waving that maple leaf flag every chance I get. Hey, I don't get the chance often.



Seriously though, it explains a bit about the F-5's in Canada if you're game to read it. It's a good little summary.

http://home.ca.inter.net/~rapickler/cf5.html





(BTW, the bit that states that the RCAF became the Canadian Forces isn't quite right. The RCAF and RCN unified with the Army in February 1968 to become the Canadian Armed Forces. The "Armed" was officially dropped in the late 90's. Why? Who the hell knows? It probably sounded too military. Many people still use the term Armed Forces though.)

[FLYBOYJ]

You're probably not the least bit interested in this dino, but you know me. Always waving that maple leaf flag every chance I get. Hey, I don't get the chance often.

and again, the CAF had the best F-5s!

[evangilder]

I am hoping that we are all talking about the same F-5, the Northrop jet. There was also a P-38 reconnaissance model called the F-5! So I assume we are talking about the modern one, since this is the modern thread.