The Kbely F-5
The F-5E is pulled out of the museum's storage hangar (which today houses the 1925-1938 exhibit) under the watchful eye of the head of the exhibit, Colonel Jaroslav Janečka (in a brigadier's uniform) in the eighties. [photo: VHÚ Aviation Museum]
Text: Miroslav Khol, VHU Aviation Museum
The Aviation Museum of the Military Historical Institute located in Kbely focuses on building a collection of aircraft flown by Czechoslovak and Czech pilots. Beyond that focus, there are also foreign aircraft in the collection, of which the Northrop F-5E Tiger II probably has the most complicated history. In the past, only a few insiders knew about its existence in Czechoslovakia.
The development of the F-5 began at Northrop under the designation N-156 with the aim of creating a supersonic fighter aircraft (later to become multirole) that would meet the conditions of easy operation and maintenance. In April 1962, the US Department of Defense announced the selection of the aircraft for the Military Assistance Program (MAP). US allies from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) requested a supersonic fighter at an affordable price. In August 1962, the aircraft received the official designation F-5A from Northrop. Although all airframes produced were to be part of the supplies for MAP, the USAF ‘borrowed’ twelve of them for combat evaluations in Vietnam.
Development continued into the F-5E, which had more powerful engines, a widened fuselage, a larger wingspan with larger wing-to-fuselage transition, increasing lift. To improve maneuverability, automatic leading edge flaps were installed in the wing.
The F-5E variant also served the South Vietnamese Air Force at the end of the conflict between North and South Vietnam. Aircraft produced in 1973 were delivered to the 536th and 540th Fighter Squadrons based at Bien Hoa. The aircraft bearing the serial number 73-00878 was first flown in December 1973 and delivered to Vietnam in the spring of 1974. Interestingly, the beginning of its service life documentation dating from June, 1974 has been preserved in Czechoslovakia and survives to this day. Before the end of the conflict in Southeast Asia, it flew 153 hours and 30 minutes.
F-5E on the apron of the Kbely airport during the installation of the outdoor exhibit, April 2005. [Photo: Miroslav Khol]
After the fall of South Vietnam, a lot of equipment, including aircraft, fell into the hands of the victorious NVA. F-5A/B aircraft along with about thirty F-5Es fell into the hands of the newly unified communist Vietnam. Vietnamese F-5s initially served alongside MiG-21s in combined air regiments and were popular with pilots for their qualities. Joint operations alongside Soviet equipment, however, presented logistical problems, and especially the increasing shortage of ammunition and spare parts forced their gradual retirement. That meant that war booty equipment began to find its way to friendly states.
An offer to hand over an F-5 aircraft to Czechoslovakia was made at the end of spring, 1980. At that time, a team of technicians from Aero Vodochody and the Motorlet company was operating in Vietnam, which was in charge of supporting at least a part of the Aero L-29 Delfíns then in use there. Among other things, these technicians were sent to Bien Hoa, where the remaining F-5 aircraft were located. There they were to check the condition of the donated aircraft and determine the possibility of its transport to Czechoslovakia. However, due to poor planning of the transport, it was delayed, but available documentation was supplied to Czechoslovakia. Another chance for transport arose during the delivery of L-39C Albatros training aircraft to the Vietnamese Air Force. On the basis of the original American documentation, preparations were made that enabled the transport to Czechoslovakia. After the L-39C was assembled in Vietnam, the original transport crates were modified to move this valuable cargo to Czechoslovakia. The machine was flown by a Vietnamese pilot in March 1981 to Da Nang. Prior to the flight, the original insignia was painted over with black paint, and the aircraft was on its way to Czechoslovakia.
F-5E in the outdoor exhibition of the Aviation Museum before renovation. The different distribution of the camouflage fields on the fuselage and the removable rear section are clearly visible, indicating that they came from a different airframe. This distribution of color fields was also preserved during the renovation. [Photo: Miroslav Khol]
Under great secrecy, the machine was delivered to state owned Aero Vodochody, and its construction and systems were subjected to intensive research by our engineers and technical staff. The airframe was gradually disassembled and the individual parts and equipment were distributed to companies in the aviation industry. At this point, it should be mentioned that Czechoslovakia was not the only country to which an F-5 from Vietnam arrived. The first was, of course, the Soviet Union in 1976, followed by Poland a year later.
At the beginning of 1982, the head of the Aviation and Cosmonautics Exhibition of the Military Museum, Colonel Jaroslav Janečka, also learned about the existence of the F-5E and officially requested the transfer of the aircraft to the museum’s collection. However, he was informed by Aero management that the machine incomplete and that research was still being carried out on it ‘to obtain detailed information about the structural and technological design of the airframe...’. However, the following year, a single General Electric J85-GE-21 engined airframe was secretly transferred to Kbely under the cover of darkness. Colonel Janečka recalled that for transport to the museum, the airplane was disguised using plywood to resemble an L-39 Albatros. After the end of testing, the museum staff understandably began to search for any missing components that were supplied to the firms involved in examinations of them. The most involved in the whole thing was a restorer named Jan Klaban, who managed to acquire a number of instruments and other items over the years, including the antenna of the Emerson Electric AN/APQ-153 radar. Unfortunately, many things, especially smaller items, were left behind and had found their way to private collections. This understandably hindered the consideration of a possible renovation, because before 1989 it was almost unthinkable to get the missing components elsewhere.
Until 1990, the aircraft was kept in storage, hidden from the public, and it was only that year that it was presented for the first time in an outdoor exhibition to open the museum season. Years of exposure in the open air had a noticeable effect on its appearance, especially its surface finish. It first appeared in the markings of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and then those of the earlier South Vietnam.
In January 2023, a public tender was announced, the subject of which was to renovate the aircraft in the collection of the Military Historical Institute in Prague for museum and exhibition purposes. The description of the actual process of the work carried out by Česká Aviatická is described in the interview with Petr Ježek within the pages of this newsletter. The refurbished F-5, including preserved accessories, will be unveiled to the public at the opening of the 2024 museum season on May 4th.
References:
DRENDEL, Lou. F-5 in Action. Squadron Signal Publications. Carrollton, Texas, 1980 FOJTIK, Jakub. Czechoslovakian F-5E Tiger II. Hobby History Vol. 34, pp. 48-50 JOHNSON, Frederick A. Northrop F-5/F-20/T-38. WarbirdTECH vol. 44. Specialty Press, North Branch, 2006 LAKE, Jon. Northrop F-5. World Air Power Journal vol. 25, pp. 46-109 THOMPSON, Warren. Skoshi Tiger, Wings of Fame vol. 5, pp. 4-23 TÚC, Pavel. Northrop F-5 Freedom Fighter/Tiger II. L+K Issues 25-26, 2002, pp. 82-91