By JARED KELLER
on March
26, 2017
The Northrop
F-20 Tigershark is arguably one of the most elegant fighter jets never built.
Developed during the waning years of the Cold War, the sleek machine came
equipped with the General Electric F404 turbofan engine that gave the F-20 an
unbelievable acceleration and initial climb rate, positioning the fighting to
“operate on short runways [and] outfight the Soviet Union’s best,” as Defense
Media Network put it in 2014.
And hell, did
Northrop know how to make your mouth water for a fine piece of military
machinery. Just watch this classic yet enthralling early 19080s promo video for
the F-20, first flagged by our friends at The Drive.
Narrated by
the legendary Air Force Gen. Chuck Yeager himself, the 13-minute sales video
paints a fairly alluring portrait of the nimble and deadly fighter in action.
“The first
line of defense is tactical air power,” muses Yeager in a voiceover fit for a
classic Arnold Schwarzenegger trailer. “The need is for quick response, high
performance, and the ability to fly again, and again, and again with only the
aircraft, the men, and the supplies at hand … Only now, with the new technology
of the 80s, is it possible to have a fighter with both high performance and
reliability.”
Sadly, the
Tigershark was doomed into non-existence not by technological failure (we
see you, F-35), but political consideration. From DMN:
With
the election of Ronald Reagan as president, the FX program gradually fell out
of favor as the administration relaxed export restrictions. Then the 1982
signing of the U.S.-PRC Joint Communiqué on arms sales blocked sale of the F-20
to Taiwan. Worse for the F-20’s chance in other markets, the Air Force had an
iron in the fire with regard to foreign military sales (FMS), as every F-16
sold to a foreign country meant the overall production cost of the Air Force’s
own F-16s would go down.
Eventually,
the U.S. Navy opted to go with the F-16N Flying Falcon rather than the
Tigershark, slamming the door in Northrop’s face. Only three F-20 Tigersharks
were ever built.
Original
post: taskandpurpose.com
F-20
Tigershark: Details
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