F-20 Tigershark

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F-20 Tigershark

F-20 Tigershark was a privately financed fighter aircraft, designed and built by Northrop in the USA, starting in 1975. It was a further evolution of Northrop's F-5 Freedom Fighter (in fact it was originally designated F-5G), although ultimately it shared little more than a strong family resemblance to that aircraft. The main change was the replacement of the F-5's two General Electric J85 engines with a single General Electric F404 turbofan, increasing its total thrust by 60%. Like the F-5, however, it was designed as a low-cost, high-performance fighter plane that was easy to maintain. It could reach speeds of Mach 2.1 and had a ferry range of 1,715 miles (2760 km).

The F-20 made its first flight on August 30, 1982, and a total of three prototypes were created. It was intended for sale to foreign countries and militaries, but the market for the plane never developed, as President Ronald Reagan relaxed the restrictions on selling fighters such as the F-16 Fighting Falcon to other countries. Also, the fact that the United States government had not placed an order for the aircraft had a large effect on the decisions of other countries to buy the F-20 or not. The Pakistan Air Force was offered the F-20 and A-10 Thunderbolt II, but insisted on choosing the F-16 because it would give them a technological advantage. Currently Pakistan is involved in the development of a very similar aircraft to the Tigershark,the JF-17. In 1986 China signed a US$550 million agreement with Grumman to modernise its J-7. The project was cancelled in early 1990 and restarted in the form of the JF-17 thunder project. It is alleged that Grumman used the F-20 plan as a final target for the upgrading the F-7.

After six years and no major buyers, Northrop cancelled the $1.2 billion project. Air forces that could afford the F-20 bought the F-16, while ones which could buy neither, purchased the cheaper F-5E/F Tiger II or the Russian MiG-21. While its performance was comparable to the Block 1/5/10 F-16 Viper and superior to the turbojet-powered export-variant F-16/79, the F-20 airframe had virtually no remaining expansion capability, as it was built on essentially a 20 year old airframe at the limits of its capabilities. The F-20's low-set wing and wing-mounted undercarriage also limited the size and number(four underwing hardpoints on the F-20 vs. six on the F-16) of underwing stores that could be used; the F-16 later would often be seen with very large [stores]. The F-16, on the other hand, was a brand-new jet that had not even begun to approach its eventual capabilities. There was speculation within the F-20 development team that the US Air Force influenced foreign militaries to buy the F-16, in order to make spare parts more available.

The last existing F-20 is on display at the California Science Center. The other two prototypes were lost due to crashes during world sales tours. The crashes were caused by pilot error, and were not linked to any malfunction of the planes.

Aerospace legend Chuck Yeager, who worked as a spokesperson for Northrop during the F-20's development, frequently touted the plane and was regularly featured in its advertising. China asked Grumman to upgrade its F-7 fighter jet. The upgraded plane now is JF-17 thunder which happens to resemble the F-20 in some aspects.

Contents

1 Quotes
2 Specifications (F-20)
3 External links
4 Related content

Quotes

"The F-20 impressed everybody but the people it was supposed to."
"High-performance jet fighter, fully armed with missiles, guns. ECM equipment, fresh paint (stars and bars painted over) ... used only for testing and sales promotion. Now in storage.

Contact Northrop Corp.

Will trade for Mig-25 and home address of Air Force Acquisition officer."

Ad found in "Pacific Flyer" magazine, shortly after the F-20 program was cancelled.

Specifications (F-20)

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F-20 Tigershark

Quotes

Specifications (F-20)

External links

Related content