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The development of the
Northrop F-5 Freedom Fighter began in 1954 under
the company designation N-156, when a
Northrop team toured Europe and Asia to examine
the defense needs of NATO and SEATO countries.
The first N-156F (59-4987) was
built in just over a year. It was initially
powered by a pair of non-afterburning General
Electric YJ85-GE-1 turbojets rated at 2100
lb.s.t. each. The first N-156F was rolled out on
May 31, 1959 and was shipped to Edwards AFB. It
took off on its first flight on July 30, 1959,
test pilot Lew Nelson being at the controls. The
cannon armament was not fitted at the time of
the first flight. Despite the lack of
afterburning engines, the aircraft went
supersonic on its first flight.
On August 9, 1962, the Model
N-156F was given the official designation of
F-5A and was given the official name Freedom
Fighter. At the same time, a two-seat combat
trainer version was ordered under the
designation F-5B. It looked a lot like the
T-38A, but it was to retain the full combat
capability of the F-5A.
The F-5A is optimized for the
air-to-ground role and has only a very limited
air-to-air capability. In the interest of
achieving low cost, the F-5A was not equipped
with a fire-control radar, the weapons being
aimed by a simple optical sight acting in
conjunction with a small Emerson radar ranging
set installed in the extreme nose. The initial
avionics fit was rather austere, the standard
electronic equipment including an AN/ARC-34C UHF
radio, PP-2024 SWIA Missile AVX, AN/AIC-18
interphone, J-4 compass, AN/APX-46 IFF and
AN/ARN-65 Tacan receiver.
The F-5B was the two-seat version
of the F-5A. It was generally similar to the
single-seat F-5A but had two seats in tandem for
dual fighter/trainer duties. The two crew
members sit in tandem rocket-powered ejection
seats, and are separated from each other by a
windscreen to protect the instructor from
windblast in the event of an ejection.
The RF-5A (N-156C) is the
reconnaissance version of the F-5A. It was
ordered in October of 1967, but did not make its
first flight until May of 1968. It retained some
combat capability with the additional provision
of four KS-92 cameras mounted in the nose.
In 1966, the Koninklijke
Luchtmacht (Royal Netherlands Air Force, or KLu)
selected the F-5 Freedom Fighter to replace its
fleet of aging F-84F Thunderstreaks. In KLu
service, the single-seater was to be designated
NF-5A, with the two-seat version being
designated NF-5B. The-Dutch ordered aircraft
were identified as CL-226 by the Canadair
factory, with the single seaters being
CL-226-1A10 and the two-seaters being
CL-226-1A11. Initially, the order was to include
90 single seaters and 15 two-seaters, but was
later revised to include 75 NF-5As and 30
NF-5Bs. A letter of intent for 75 NF-5A single
seaters and 30 NF-5B two seaters was signed on
January 30, 1967, with deliveries set to begin
in late 1969. |
