Northrop F-5
Enthusiast Page
Original illustration
Operator profile

Turkey and the F-5

Turkey's last F-5s don't fight. They fly in tight formation as the Turkish Stars, one of the few display teams on supersonic jets.

Display teamTurkish Stars, 1992
Jets13 NF-5A/B 2000
BaseKonya
StatusFlying, moving to Hürjet
Seven white and red NF-5s in arrowhead formation trailing red and white smoke
Original illustration The Turkish Stars in formation over the plains near Konya, trailing their red and white smoke. Painted for this site; it sets the scene and is not evidence of real markings.

F-5s from many places

Turkey flew the F-5A and F-5B as frontline fighters, and its fleet came from more than one source. When Iran traded up to the Tiger II in the mid-1970s, some of its old F-5As went to Turkey.[6] Later Turkey bought Canadair-built NF-5s that had served the Royal Netherlands Air Force, first taking them into its inventory in 1987.[1][3]

In time the display team became the only Turkish Air Force unit still flying the F-5, after the type left its other roles.[5]

The Turkish Stars

The Turkish Stars were set up by official decree on 7 November 1992 and started training that December with four NF-5s.[1] The first public show came on 18 June 1993. The formation grew to eight jets by 2004, flown from Konya Air Base in central Turkey.[2] Their best-known show was in Baku, Azerbaijan, on 24 August 2001, in front of more than a million people.[1]

Because the NF-5 can go faster than sound, the Stars are one of the few national display teams flying supersonic jets.[2] In 2024 the fleet stood at 13 upgraded NF-5A/B 2000s, seven single-seaters and six two-seaters, with eight flying in each show.[2][4]

The cost of flying close

Display flying in old jets has not been free of losses. An NF-5 crashed during training near Karatay, Konya, in 2021, killing its pilot. In December 2022 a bird strike stopped an engine and the pilot ejected safely. In March 2024 an NF-5 crashed on landing at Konya where runway repairs were under way; the pilot ejected, but a serviceman working on the site was killed.[1][2]

Handing over to the Hürjet

In 2022 the team announced it would move to the Hürjet, a supersonic jet trainer built by Turkish Aerospace.[8] A Hürjet prototype flew in formation with the Stars on 3 September 2023,[7] and joint flights were still going on in 2026 ahead of a staged handover.[2] The same jet has also been offered to Spain to replace its own F-5s.[7] Until the switch is done, Turkey stays on the short list of countries still flying the F-5.

Last updated

Sources

  1. Turkish Stars, Wikipedia
  2. Turkish Stars, MigFlug (2026)
  3. Turkish Stars, European Airshows
  4. Fixed-wing procurement and modernization of the Turkish Air Force, Defence Turkey (2024)
  5. Turkish Stars to visit UK for the first time in 13 years, This Is Flight
  6. Iran Air Force modernization, GlobalSecurity
  7. TAI Hürjet, Wikipedia
  8. Turkish Stars will switch from NF-5 aircraft to Hürjet, Haber Aero (2022)
All operatorsF-5 timeline ›Family tree