1/72 SCALE

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

August 1997 the ROCAF began to receive their single-seat RF-5E’s to replace the aging RF-104G. Seven low-hour F-5E’s were converted by Singapore Aerospace and given the name “Tigergazer”. To accomplish this, existing radar and one M39 cannon were removed and the nose extended 8 inches. Six openings were added for the new cameras and ballast added between the engine exhausts to balance the additional weight of the new nose. RF- 5E 5501 serial 83-0085 and formerly F-5E 5315 was assigned to 401st TFW, 12th TRS “Tigergazer” at Hualien Airbase.