abort_takeoff: F20 TIGERSHARK, NORTHROP FIRST DISASTER

The F-20 Tigershark (initially F-5G) was a privately financed light fighter, designed and built by Northrop. Its development began in 1975 as a further evolution of Northrop's F-5E Tiger II, featuring a new engine that greatly improved overall performance, and a modern avionics suite including a powerful and flexible radar. Compared with the F-5E, the F-20 was much faster, gained beyond visual range air-to-air capability, and had a full suite of air-to-ground modes capable of firing most U.S. weapons. With these improved capabilities, the F-20 became competitive with contemporary U.S. fighter designs like the F-16 Fighting Falcon, but was much less expensive to purchase and operate.

Much of the F-20's development was carried out as part of a U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) project called "FX", which intended to sell less-advanced fighter designs to U.S. allies to limit the possibility of front-line U.S. technology falling into Soviet hands. FX developed out of a general re-working of U.S. military export policy started under the Carter administration in 1977. Although Northrop had high hopes for the F-20 in the international market, changes in policy following Ronald Reagan's election left the F-20 competing for sales with front line fighters like the F-16.

With some great sales marketing like Gen. Charlews "Chuck" E. Yeager and veteran test pilot : Darrel Cornell, Tigershark have some promising response in Far East. Korea, Indonesia and some countries made a hard commitment to this fighter plane. But tragically 2 fatal crash in demo is happen caused postpone all commitment.

The development program was eventually abandoned in 1986 after three prototypes had been built and a fourth partially completed.^[1]

Specifications (F-20)

Data from Johnsen,^[57] Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft^[3]

General characteristics

Crew: 1 pilot
Length: 47 ft 4 in (14.4 m)
Wingspan: 27 ft 11.9 in / 8.53 m; with wingtip missiles (26 ft 8 in/ 8.13 m; without wingtip missiles)
Height: 13 ft 10 in (4.20 m)
Wing area: 200 ft² (18.6 m²)
Empty weight: 13,150 lb (5,090 kg)
Loaded weight: 15,480 lb (6,830 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 27,500 lb (11,920 kg)
Powerplant: 1× General Electric F404-GE-100 turbofan, 17,000 lbf (76 kN)

Performance

Maximum speed: Mach 2+
Combat radius: 300 nmi (633 mi, 1,020 km) ; for hi-lo-hi mission with 2 × 330 US gal (1,250 L) drop tanks
Ferry range: 1,490 nmi (2,165 mi, 3,980 km) ; with 3 × 330 US gal (1,250 L) drop tanks
Service ceiling: 55,000 ft (16,800 m)
Rate of climb: 52,800 ft/min (255 m/s)
Wing loading: 81.0 lb/ft² (395 kg/m²)
Thrust/weight: 1.1

Armament

Guns: 2× 20 mm (0.79 in) Pontiac M39A2 cannons in the nose, 280 rounds each
Hardpoints: Five external hardpoints with a capacity of 8,000 lb (3,600 kg) of bombs, missiles, rockets and drop tanks for extended range,
Rockets: 2× CRV7 rocket pods Or
2 × LAU-10 rocket pods with 4 × Zuni 5 in (127 mm) rockets each Or
2 × Matra rocket pods with 18× SNEB 68 mm rockets each
Missiles: 2× AIM-9 Sidewinders on wingtip launch rails (similar to F-16 and F/A-18)
AGM-65 Maverick air-to-surface missiles on hardpoints
Bombs: Various air-to-ground ordnance such as Mark 80 series of unguided iron bombs (including 3 kg and 14 kg practice bombs), CBU-24/49/52/58 cluster bomb munitions, M129 Leaflet bomb