F-5 Northrop Freedom Fighter - Documental en Español

Video from the channel Flying Machines about Northrop F-5, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 42:22. Language: Spanish. Video type: Documentary.

Spanish-dubbed episode of Discovery Channel's "Wings" series devoted to Northrop's family of light fighters: from the N-156 study and the T-38 Talon trainer to the F-5A/B Freedom Fighter, the F-5E/F Tiger II, and the F-20 Tigershark. It reviews their conception, ease of maintenance, armament, combat debut in Vietnam, and later role as chase planes and as aggressor aircraft in training.

After the Korean War, fighters kept growing in size and complexity; Northrop went the opposite way, betting on a small, lightweight, and cheap aircraft. Its 1955 studies produced the N-156; the Air Force did not want a light fighter at the time, but on June 15, 1956, it ordered the trainer version, the T-38, which flew on April 10, 1959. The fighter version continued on company funds until 1962, when the Department of Defense decided to equip allies with modern aircraft under its military assistance program. The program began in October 1962 with the single-seat F-5A and the two-seat F-5B, and the YF-5A prototype flew on July 31, 1963. The first deliveries took place in 1964 at Williams Air Force Base; Iran received the first ones in service in February 1965, and Norway, Spain, and Canada signed agreements, with licensed production in Spain and Canada.

The aircraft evaluated in Vietnam arrived on October 23 and in 150 days flew more than 3,500 missions with a 1.5% abort rate. Their success led to the F-5E Tiger II, unveiled on June 23, 1972, and making its maiden flight on August 11; by then more than 1,100 F-5A and B had been built for more than 20 countries. The F-5E reached Mach 1.6, and a reconnaissance version, the Tigereye, was derived from it. T-38 production ended in 1972, and Singapore received the last F-5s in 1989, with a total of 3,806 T-38s and F-5s built. The F-5G became the F-20 Tigershark, which found no buyers. The documentary closes with the T-38 as a chase plane, the F-5 fuselage in the X-29, and the aggressor F-5s of Red Flag at Nellis, chosen for their resemblance to the MiG-21.