The Best Fighter Jet Never Built

during the 1970s a program was created to ensure that america's allies could face the soviet union's earth threat the ensuing fx program would develop a unique model that could confront the migs without using any compromising technology that could fall into the wrong hands thus the northrop f-20 tiger shark was born a light fighter that met all the requirements but as author steve pace pointed out it was arguably quote one of the best fighters that never went into production [Music] bureaucracy during president john f kennedy's administration the u.s department of defense was tasked with finding a fighter aircraft that could be offered to their allies through the mutual defense assistance act the u.s would select an inexpensive model that did not feature compromising leading-edge technology so that it didn't fall into soviet hands and risk national security in april of 1962 the u.s air force informed the secretary of defense that an aircraft had finally been selected it was the northrop f5 freedom fighter the international fighter aircraft program was created as soviet migs became increasingly common and a significant threat and the allies needed an equivalent the us air force then submitted a request for a lightweight fighter that could stand against the migs among several companies that submitted a proposal northrop's f5 stood out and an upgrade of the f5e tiger ii was announced as the winner in late 1970. over a thousand aircraft were eventually produced an initiative eventually stemmed from the 1975 air force program fx to develop a new fighter that would outperform the f5e however the new model could not employ advanced avionic systems currently used in other us aircraft the ultimate objective was to provide a low-cost export frontline fighter to the nation's allies to compete with the latest soviet fighter threat the mig-21 moreover unlike previous programs in the mutual defense assistance act the fx would be entirely financed by the private sector such companies would be banned for marketing the aircraft themselves as sales would be handled by the department of defense while northrop's model would allow us allies to sell the fx fighter without exposing important military advances the political environment in the late 1970s and early 1980s would place strict restrictions on sales severely limiting the model's potential [Music] design and development the north rip f-20 tiger shark was an evolution of the f5e model series of the f5 tiger 2 line the concept was initially developed under the designation f5g but gradually became its own design the f-20 seemed a lot like the f5 on the outside with its sharp nose cone and the cockpit well after the nose section but not yet midship unlike the f5e this aircraft had a single general electric f404 engine buried in the aft fuselage with two elongated rectangular intakes along the sides however the outtake was a single exhaust chunky ring under the tail rudder the engine also provided 60 more thrust than the two old general electric j85s combined consequently its thrust to weight ratio improved from 1.0 to 1.13 its speed was over mach 2 and its ceiling was over 55 000 feet the tiger strikes initial climb rate was 52 800 feet per minute although the f5es wing profile remained unchanged the leading edge extensions were modified improving the maximum light coefficient by 12 while the wing area increase was a mere 1.6 percent a single vertical tail fin and low set horizontal planes made up the empanadas whereas the main wing had swept back leading edges and straight trailing edges plus the wings were clipped to hold the standard sidewinder missile and the holy retractable undercarriage was a conventional configuration of two main legs and a nose leg initially the aircraft was rather sluggish in terms of pitch hence the horizontal stabilizer was increased by 30 percent and a new fly-by-wire system with dual channels was installed the construction of the f-20 would employ composite materials and different areas were redesigned during development to use fiberglass instead of metal there were also plenty of upgrades in the mechanical parts its avionics suite was innovative and a considerable improvement from older designs the multi-mode general electric an apg-67 radar offered several air-to-air and air-to-ground models and was the centerpiece of the sensor system the older navigation system was also replaced with an entirely electronic version based on a ring laser gyroscope therefore the total time from power on to take off was reduced to around 22 seconds the shortest scramble time in contemporary aircraft according to northrip the cockpit was changed entirely and beyond visual range capability improved the new version featured an immense heads-up display two monochrome multi-function displays highly placed on the control panel and a complete hands-on throttle and stick control system or hotas this configuration allowed the pilot to keep both hands on the control system while keeping the instrument panel at reach all these improvements amounted to arguably the most reliable aircraft in service back then furthermore the tiger shark was fitted to handle most of the weapons in the us arsenal from mark 80 bombs to agm-65 maverick air-to-ground missiles or aim-9 sidewinder and aim-7 sparrow air-to-air missiles the f-20s main competitor the general dynamics f-16 could not fire the sparrow until the late 1980s like the rest of its f5 family the f-20s were equipped with two nose-mounted m39 cannons however production aircraft might have featured two lighter forward aerospace tiger clock cannons instead with a higher fire rate than the m39a2 they were based on but there were also some issues due to the fighter's small size the aircraft had a shallow ground clearance because of its low mounted wing and the landing gear position needed loads placed in the outer ends of the wings limiting hardpoint weights to 1000 pounds only one hardpoint beneath the fuselage was able to transport a heavier load such as a single mk 84 2000 pound bomb or even five mk 82 500 pound bombs another disadvantage was that its payload and range were limited in comparison to the f-16 but while the f-20 was significantly more expensive than its predecessor the f5e it was less costly than other options on the market including the f-16 in fact life maintenance costs were around 50 lower than the f-16 ultimately the budget-friendly design was planned to consume 53 percent less fuel and have 63 lower operating costs while being four times more reliable than the competition testing in late august of 1982 the f-20 had its maiden flight the flight lasted 40 minutes and the prototype climbed 40 000 feet and reached mach 1.04 the results were beyond promising the first customer came in november and it was bahrain south korea was also interested in producing the f-20 locally and some improvements were implemented expanded fuel capacity and fiberglass composites to facilitate and support the production by the end of april the following year 240 flights were accumulated and 10 potentially interested nations performed evaluation flights several negotiations were simultaneously taking place which appeared to be a positive sign even ace chuck yeager said quote of all the airplanes in the world that i have flown the f5 is the most fun to fly in 1983 a second prototype took to the skies featuring a complete avionics suite the test program included the missile essays and the sidewinder and the sparrow were assessed several experiments followed with rockets bombs and firing rounds one of the main characteristics of the tiger shark was its ability to fly 124 kilometers per hour at a 35 degree angle of attack in contrast the f-16 was limited to 30 degrees during these flights acceleration from mach 0.9 to 1.2 was achieved in 29 seconds while the climb to 40 thousand feet happened in 2.3 minutes destiny in may of 1983 the air force signed an agreement to certify the f-20s performance airworthiness and fixed price program meanwhile the tiger shark was already being marketed within the american services the u.s navy was looking for a new fighter for its top gun program of dogfight training they specifically sought an aircraft that could match the current soviet fighters but the navy ultimately went for the f-16 [Music] as the air force itself did not purchase the f-20 it doomed the line and any further developments not to mention its acceptance into the global market insufficient endorsement from the service was regarded as proof of its value and the international orders were cancelled three prototypes had been completed and a fourth was under construction with several new ideas still as rand corporation said quote northrop did not take a prototype approach with the f-20 the first f-20 was intended to be a production quality aircraft at the time of the project northwest corporation's private endeavor cost amounted to 1.2 billion dollars and the model was never sold to a foreign party due to bureaucratic setbacks and lack of support from the government the company eventually gave up and canceled the project for good in 1986. prior to the program's termination the tigershark flew 1500 flights however two tragic accidents might have also contributed to cancelling the program in 1984 pilot daryl cornell crashed during a demonstration flight in south korea and in 1985 dave barnes crashed at gooseberry labrador while practicing for the paris air show both pilots blacked out due to excessive g-forces clearing the f-20 of any fault as impressive as the f-20s design was aviation experts agree that it came out at the wrong time as the f-16 fighting falcon with similar cost and multi-role capabilities was favored as such the tiger shark never fulfilled its destiny to become the cold war era's light fighter star thank you for watching our video please give us a thumbs up and don't forget to subscribe to all our 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Channel: Dark Skies

Views: 870,849

Keywords: air force, aircraft, airplane, airplanes, avgeek, aviation, aviation daily, aviation industry, aviation news, best of aviation, dark docs, dark skies, documentary, documentary channel, experiment, experimental, f-16, f-20, f-20 タイガーシャーク, f16, f20, f20タイガーシャーク, fighter, fighter jet, general aviation, history, history channel, jet, northrop grumman, prototype, tigershark, weekly dose of aviation

Id: XDSLbmQD0Mw

Length: 10min 5sec (605 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 19 2021