eehnie wrote:
It maters in this sense. It is not right to call F-5 to the T-38. The original design was a trainer aircraft. The T-38 is not a fighter modified, while the F-5 is a trainer aircraft modified to be a fighter. The T-38 is not supersonic because it was developed from a fighter. The T-38 was designed supersonic to be a trainer, and has been successful.
This is not correct.
Northrops history on this is well known and has been in the public domain for decades. The info is freely available.
The original design by Northrop was called the N-156. It was designed as a fighter.
This followed on from their original lightweight fighter design called the N-102 Fang, but Northrop decided to make use of the brand new J85 engine, which was small enough to make the lightweight fighter even smaller. The aim of the design was to make a low cost, low maintenance fighter, and early designs were also directed to a potential naval application to operate off smaller carriers. The early carrier-borne light fighter versions had a two seater trainer derivitive due to the demanding nature of carrier ops.
While the fighter design of the main N-156 was basically being completed and being frozen, Northrop were informed of a new USAF trainer requirement, and decided to adapt and modify their lightweight N-156 fighter design and enter a modified version of the design into the USAF's requirement for a supersonic trainer. This then led Northrop to issue the designations N-156F for the original fighter role, and the N-156T for the trainer version, which had a series of differences from the fighter.
Because the N-156T was selected by the USAF as its supersonic trainer, Northrop decided to put the original fighter version, now called the N-156F, on the backburner.
Even after Northrop devoted more resources to bringing the derived trainer N-156T (called the T-38 Talon in service) to the fore due to the order, the fighter version flew rapidly 1 month after the trainer.
To recap: The design was that of a lightweight, low cost, low maintenance fighter called the Northrop N-156. The N-156T was modified by Northrop from the N-156 light fighter design, and became known as the T-38. The N-156 light fighter was then redesignated N-156F, and was known as the F-5 once it was ordered and entered service.
The only reason the trainer T-38 flew first was because it was ordered first, causing Northrop to concentrate on getting it up to speed quicker.
Last edited by wilhelm on Mon Apr 18, 2016 12:29 am; edited 2 times in total