This is still a very tight lil airframe. I am not sure if the USAF still uses them as the aggressor aircraft in their Red Flag War Games or not. But it was/is a highly maneuverable airframe, and a lethal adversary in the experienced pilot's hands. Definitely one of my favorite B1RDs.
The little F5 was s great aircraft, small, lightweight, manuverable with a considerable linger time on target. The Pentagon'd objections to it we're that it lacked radar and a lot of the bells and whistles avionics. It was probably the last true pilots aircraft. When McDonnal-Douglas built a prototype of an enlarged version, the F20 Tigershark, on their own dime by the way, the Pentagon refused to even consider it and in short order even prohibited MD from selling it on the foreign market. The F20 had twin engines more ammunition capacity and twice the wing hard points. Both the F5 and the F20 had another advantage the Pentagon was Snd remains averse to - they were relatively cheap and easy to build! God but the desk generals love to spend our money! An embeded "socialist" bureaucracy if ever there was one.
The Pentagon was at that time fully committed in developing the F16. A great aircraft but they burdened it with all the previously mentioned bell and whistles that considerably reduced it's overall performance and on target time. "40 Second"John Boyd who was the lead conceptual designer of the F16 and the Navy's F18 said he loathed the final product for this very reason.
Thanks for the info. As I remember there was an article a year or so ago that stated the Vietnamese communists were considering upgrading the existing ones.
This is still a very tight lil airframe. I am not sure if the USAF still uses them as the aggressor aircraft in their Red Flag War Games or not. But it was/is a highly maneuverable airframe, and a lethal adversary in the experienced pilot's hands. Definitely one of my favorite B1RDs.
ReplyDeleteI saw an article on this yesterday but evidently didn't post it.
DeleteThe little F5 was s great aircraft, small, lightweight, manuverable with a considerable linger time on target. The Pentagon'd objections to it we're that it lacked radar and a lot of the bells and whistles avionics. It was probably the last true pilots aircraft. When McDonnal-Douglas built a prototype of an enlarged version, the F20 Tigershark, on their own dime by the way, the Pentagon refused to even consider it and in short order even prohibited MD from selling it on the foreign market. The F20 had twin engines more ammunition capacity and twice the wing hard points. Both the F5 and the F20 had another advantage the Pentagon was Snd remains averse to - they were relatively cheap and easy to build! God but the desk generals love to spend our money! An embeded "socialist" bureaucracy if ever there was one.
ReplyDeleteThe Pentagon was at that time fully committed in developing the F16. A great aircraft but they burdened it with all the previously mentioned bell and whistles that considerably reduced it's overall performance and on target time. "40 Second"John Boyd who was the lead conceptual designer of the F16 and the Navy's F18 said he loathed the final product for this very reason.
Thanks for the info. As I remember there was an article a year or so ago that stated the Vietnamese communists were considering upgrading the existing ones.
Delete