Air Power Series>1:72 die-cast display model>F-5>HAS3321
Northrop F-5E Tiger II Patrouille Suisse "50th Years Anniversary"
General Background
The Northrop F-5 tactical fighter was designed as an extremely maneuverable, supersonic fighter with a high rate of reliability at a low operating cost. The F-5 first flew on July 30, 1959 with the first customer delivery in 1964. The last of more than 2,600 F-5’s was produced in 1989 and about two-thirds of these are still in service with 26 countries more than 4 decades later. The F-5 was manufactured by Northrop Grumman and under license in Canada, Taiwan, South Korea, Spain and Switzerland.
The Aircraft
The Swiss Air Force purchased 98 Northrop F-5E Tiger IIs as well as 12 dual-seat F-5Fs
acquired in two contracts. The F-5E Tiger IIs were assigned serials J-3001 through J-3098
and the 12 dual-seat F-5Fs were given serials J-3201 through J-3212. The Swiss Air
Force had retired their De Havilland Venoms placing a large strain on their Hawker Hunters
and the F-5s were meant to alleviate this problem.
Founded on August 22, 1964 the Swiss Air Force aerobatic team, the "Patrouille Suisse"
flew the Hawker Hunter for the next 30 years until they began flying the faster and more
maneuverable Northrop F-5E in their 1995 season. The team uses 6 F-5Es painted in the
Swiss national colors of white and red. Their team mascot is a stuffed furry toy called "Eric
Flathead".
Specifications :
| Crew: | 1 |
| Dimensions | |
| Length: | 47 ft 4.75 in (14.45 m) |
| Wingspan: | 26 ft 8 in (8.13 m) |
| Height: | 13 ft 4.5 in (4.08 m) |
| Powerplant: | 2 X General Electric J85-GE-21B turbojet |
| Dry thrust: | 3,500 lbf (15.5 kN) per engine |
| Thrust with afterburner: | 5,000 lbf (22.2 kN) per engine |
| Internal fuel : | 677 US gal (2,563 L) |
| External fuel: | 275 US gal (1,040 L) per tank in up to 3 tanks |
| Weight | |
| Empty weight: | 9,558 lb (4,349 kg) |
| Loaded weight: | 15,745 lb (7,157 kg) |
| Max takeoff weight: | 20,486 lb (9,312 kg) |
| Performance | |
| Maximum speed: | 917 kn (1,060 mph, 1,700 km/h, Mach 1.6) |
| Range: | 760 nmi (870 mi, 1,405 km) |
| Ferry range: | 2,010 nmi (2,310 mi, 3,700 km) |
| Service ceiling: | 51,800 ft (15,800 m) |
| Rate of climb: | 34,400 ft/min (175 m/s) |
| Armament | |
| Guns: | 2 X 20 mm (0.787 in) Pontiac M39A2 Revolver cannons in the nose, 280 rounds/gun |
| Hardpoints: | 7 total (3 X wet): 2 X wing-tip AAM launch rails, 4 X under-wing and 1 X under-fuselage pylon stations holding up to 7,000 pounds (3,200 kg) of payload. |
| Rockets: | 2 X LAU-61/LAU-68 rocket pods (each with 19 X / 7 X Hydra 70 mm rockets, respectively) or |
| 2 X LAU-5003 rocket pods (each with 19 X CRV7 70 mm rockets) or | |
| 2 X LAU-10 rocket pods (each with 4 X Zuni 127 mm rockets) or | |
| 2 X Matra rocket pods (each with 18 X SNEB 68 mm rockets) | |
| Missiles | |
| Air-to-air missile: | 4 X AIM-9 Sidewinders or 4 X AIM-120 AMRAAMs |
| Air-to-surface missile: | 2 X AGM-65 Mavericks |
| Bombs: | A variety of air-to-ground ordnance such as the Mark 80 series of unguided iron bombs (including 3 kg and 14 kg practice bombs), CBU-24/49/52/58 cluster bomb munitions, napalm bomb canisters and M129 Leaflet bomb and laser guided bombs of Paveway family. |
| Others: | up to 3 X 150/275 US gallon Sargent Fletcher drop tanks for ferry flight or extended range/loitering time. |
| Avionics: | Emerson Electric AN/APQ-153 radar on early batch of F-5E |
| Emerson Electric AN/APQ-159 radar on later production F-5E |