Hobby Master 1/72 HA3320 Northrop F-5E Tiger II 71-1417, 58th TFW, Luke AFB, Arizona, 1970s
Hobby Master 1/72 Northrop F-5E Tiger II 71-1417, 58th TFW, Luke AFB, Arizona, 1970s HA3320
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.
On June 23, 1972 Northrop F-5E Tiger II 71-1417 left the Hawthorne plant bound and on August 11, 1972 made its maiden flight. The aircraft was assigned to the 425th TFTS but administratively the 425th was assigned to the 58th TFW at Luke AFB but operated from Williams AFB and this is the reason for the 425 on the aircraft nose. The original mission was training South Vietnamese Air Force pilots on the F-5C. It was after the end of the Vietnam War that the 425th received the newer F-5E on April 6, 1973. The objective now was to train pilots from the various countries that had acquired the F-5E. In 1989 the F-5 training program ended and 71-1417 was sold to Brazil.