It flew before the Beatles had a hit.
The first F-5 took to the air in July 1959, according to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. That design was still flying as a front-line training opponent more than 60 years later.
The Tiger II was more than a new name.
The F-5E got J85-21 engines with about 20 percent more thrust, roughly 9 percent more wing area, maneuvering flaps and more internal fuel. NASA's history lists all of them.
It got radar late.
The early Freedom Fighter had no fire-control radar. The F-5E added an Emerson AN/APQ-153 radar as part of an integrated fire-control system.
Switzerland bought 110 of them.
The Swiss Air Force bought 110 F-5Es from the U.S. Air Force in the 1970s and flew them lightly, which later made them valuable to the U.S. Navy.
Then the U.S. bought them back, twice.
In a reverse Foreign Military Sales program, the Navy bought 44 former Swiss jets over six years for $50 million. Later it went back for 22 more.
They came home in cargo planes.
Each of the first Swiss F-5Es was flown from Emmen, Switzerland, to St. Augustine, Florida, inside a Navy C-130T.
Two jets went in, one came out.
NAVAIR described each F-5N as an old Navy F-5E combined with a newer Swiss airframe. One jet arrived at the plant each month for a five-month rebuild.
The Navy built three FrankenTigers.
These two-seat F-5Fs used the cockpit and tail sections of old Navy F-5Fs bolted to former Swiss center sections. The first one flew on November 25, 2008.
An F-5E helped make sonic booms quieter.
NASA flew an F-5E with a reshaped nose to test whether shaping could soften a sonic boom. That is why its nose should never be used as a standard F-5E clue.
You can tell most variants apart by counting seats.
One cockpit points to an F-5A, F-5E or F-5N, and two to an F-5B or F-5F. It is the first thing to check when you identify an F-5, but not the last.
Last updated