F-5 THE FIGHTER that CHANGED the BRAZILIAN AIR FORCE - 50 YEARS of History in Brazil!
Video from the channel Aero Por Trás da Aviação about Northrop F-5, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 15:58. Language: Portuguese. Video type: Documentary.
What it's about
Tribute to 50 years of the F-5 in the Brazilian Air Force (FAB), filmed alongside an F-5EM at the maintenance depot in São Paulo. It reviews the aircraft's origin, its variants, its arrival in Brazil and its modernisation.
Historical background
In the 1950s Northrop sought a light, economical fighter; the team was led by Edgar Schmued, who had worked on the P-51 Mustang and the F-86 Sabre. The N-156 project, with two General Electric J85 turbojets, produced the T-38 Talon trainer (replacing the T-33) and the F-5A Freedom Fighter, followed by the two-seat F-5B, the reconnaissance RF-5A and the F-5E Tiger II. Brazil received the aircraft in March 1975 with 30 F-5E and six F-5B, under a 72-million-dollar contract; the first landed at Galeão on 13 March 1975. In 1988, 22 F-5E and four F-5F arrived from the USAF, and in the 1990s the F-5B went to museums. In the early 2000s, Embraer and an Israeli company upgraded 46 aircraft to F-5EM and F-5FM standard, with new radar, electronic warfare, displays, HUD and helmet-mounted sight, and an encrypted datalink with the R-99. In 2008, 11 more aircraft arrived from Jordan, and in 2020 the integration of new datalinks began.
Key facts
The video gives 14.45 m in length, 8.13 m wingspan, 4,349 kg empty weight, 11,193 kg at takeoff, Mach 1.6, a 15,800 m ceiling and seven hardpoints with 3,200 kg of ordnance. It mentions derivatives such as the F-20 Tigershark, the YF-17 (basis for the F/A-18 Hornet), a NASA demonstrator for reducing sonic boom, and the Grumman X-29, which used the forward fuselage and nose landing gear of the F-5A.