Northrop F-5 Freedom Fighter

Video from the channel Western Museum of Flight about Northrop F-5, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 30:14. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

Ron Gibb, who worked at Northrop for 45 years and joined the F-5 program in 1966, presents an F-5A(G) at the Western Museum of Flight — the thirtieth built for Norway. As he walks around the aircraft, he explains its design and commercial history and shares anecdotes from its service.

According to Gibb, in 1963 President Kennedy chose the F-5 under the Military Assistance Program to replace the World War II- and Korea-era aircraft the United States was handing down to its allies. He wanted a modern fighter that was light, simple to operate and maintain, and affordable. The aircraft went to Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Iran, Turkey and Greece. Norway, by contrast, paid for its aircraft, and its F-5A(G) version added heated windscreens and air intakes, a tailhook for icy runways, and rocket-assisted takeoff to meet its NATO commitments. Norway also had the RF-5A reconnaissance version, with five cameras in a cast-magnesium nose.

To counter the MiG-21, General Electric raised the thrust of each engine from 4,000 to 5,000 lb. After an F-5B demonstrator in 1969, the F-5 beat Lockheed and General Dynamics in the international fighter competition. Northrop later developed the F-5G with its own funds, with a single 18,000 lb F404 engine and a thrust-to-weight ratio above one, which would become the F-20. Gibb recounts that the veto on sales to Taiwan, the Air Force's preference for the F-16, and defeat against the F-16N in a Navy competition led to the program being abandoned after spending about a billion dollars, so the company could focus on the B-2. IAI later took over the F-5 modernization market, with work in Chile and on Brazil's 50 aircraft.

The F-5A weighs about 8,300 lb empty, carries 4,000 lb of fuel, normally takes off at 13,000 lb, and can carry 6,400 lb of external stores, up to about 20,000 lb at maximum. It is armed with two 20 mm M39 cannons with 480 rounds each. The ejection seat works at zero altitude and 12 knots, and the honeycomb horizontal stabilizer weighs 43 lb. Each J85-13 engine weighs about 600 lb and its intake swallows 44 lb of air per second. Gibb credits Welko Gasich with guaranteeing 12 serious accidents per 100,000 hours, versus the 23 typical at the time; after about 13 million hours, the T-38 averages 1.5. He also recounts how a heated windscreen built up an electrical charge and burned a pilot's gloves, which led to it being disabled.