Top Gun F-5F Question

[Cliff C]

I'm thinking of building a Top Gun F-5F from the late '80s and having problems locating some information. The plane wore a green and grey splinter scheme with the bort number 50. The aircraft was later transferred to an east coast adversary squadron still wearing the same paint scheme. While I have pics that show the paint scheme clearly from a number of angles, I can't locate any that clearly tell me if the landing gear and wheel wells were still in the typical silver color or if they were painted wihite? My best guess based on poor photos is white gear and silver wheel wells.

Any research help is greatly appreciated.

-Cliff

Edited April 17, 2014 by Cliff C

[JackMan]

Don't know if this helps but perhaps you could contact this gentleman for more info:

http://hsfeatures.com/features04/f5fdwa_2.htm

[Aggressor01]

I've worked on F-5s for almost 10 years now and I've never seen the wheel wells painted white. Most Landing gear is white but all the doors and wells are the aluminum color.

[Fuji]

I've photographed that jet a lot. It was first transferred to VFA-127 from Topgun then to VF-45 after VFA-127 started getting Hornets. Wells were silver as they are on every single F-5 I've every seen in USN service.

[tomthegrom]

Gosh I LOVE those old school F-5s in adversary scemes. That Viggen splinter is beeeeeeeeeutiful.

[Cliff C]

Great picture and info Fuji! Please let me know if you have other pics of this aircraft published or available for sale. Would love to have some higher quality pics to go by for painting and weathering.

Thanks again - Cliff

[Cliff C]

One additional question. Does this aircraft have the leading edge root extensions? I can see the "duck bill" nose but can't tell with about the LERX. In some pics they look like the standard style and in other photos is looks like the extended variety. Thanks again for everyone's help.

Cliff

[f5guy]

One additional question. Does this aircraft have the leading edge root extensions? I can see the "duck bill" nose but can't tell with about the LERX. In some pics they look like the standard style and in other photos is looks like the extended variety. Thanks again for everyone's help.

Cliff

Hi Cliff,

To answer your question: Yes, this aircraft had the duckbill nose cone and wing root LEXs for the entire time that it wore this paint scheme with Topgun, VFA-127 and VF-45, and up until it was retired by VFC-13 five years ago or so. I only ever seen one F-5E that had a mix of nose and wing root mods. The pattern seems to be that if an F-5E/F has the duckbill nose cone, it also has the wing root LEXs. HTH, Fred K.

Edited April 19, 2014 by f5guy

[Cliff C]

Thanks Fred!!

I know the two usually go together but the F-5s seem to have a lot of "exceptions". Evidently, many of the early Navy F-5s did not have the radar and did not need the 300lb counter weight under the exhaust which is a bit of an interesting twist as well.

-Cliff

[f5guy]

Thanks Fred!!

I know the two usually go together but the F-5s seem to have a lot of "exceptions". Evidently, many of the early Navy F-5s did not have the radar and did not need the 300lb counter weight under the exhaust which is a bit of an interesting twist as well.

-Cliff

Hi Cliff,

Correct, the original USN F-5E/Fs did not have a radar, so the F's didn't need the counter weight. The easiest way to tell the original USN F-5s from the ex-USAF F-5 that arrived later is that the original USN jets BuNo (six digits, usually located just above the horizontal stabs) will start with "1". The ex-USAF machines will start with "7" or "8", with the exception being that any that start with "76" are the ex-Swiss birds currently in use. The original USN machines were delivered with the round nose cone and no wing root LEXs. About the 1982 to 1984 time frame they started to get the duckbill nose cone and wing root LEXs after being overhauled (I assume). So pretty much anytime from 1985 onward they had the mods. However, if you've got a pic showing otherwise, go with it! For the ex-USAF jets used by VFC-13 and VMFT-401 it gets a little trickier since some of them got the duckbill nose cone and LEXs mods, and some never did. A good picture is your best bet here. HTH, Fred K.

Edited April 21, 2014 by f5guy