Of Course, There's A Catch; Isn't There Always A Catch?
Can you really buy a
supersonic jet fighter for $100? Well, no. Not YOU. Or me. But
someone can. Or rather, some nations can.
South Korea is retiring its last 50 F-5A and F-5B Freedom
Fighters (also called Tigers) this month, after 40 years of
service. You'd never know they were that old to look at them;
Korean mechanics have kept them clean enough to serve bulgogi on
(probably by not serving bulgogi on them, in part).
The Koreans have their own name for the venerable, but still
potent, little fighter: Chegoong-ho, which means "Skymaster."
The Koreans are building their own plane in the F-5 class but,
of course, more modern, the T-50. So they don't need the F-5s,
their lead-in fighter trainer and supersonic trainer, any more. But
they certainly hope to turn the bargain-basement F-5 sales of today
into sales of new airplanes tomorrow. The KT-1 turboprop trainer
(which replaced the T-41 and T-37 in Korean service) and T-50 are
good deals, but substantially more than $100 a pop.
About half of Korea's 50 remaining early F-5s will be sold. The
other half will be used for static training airframes, or donated
to museums. The F-5 was very important in South Korean military
history -- it was the first Korean supersonic fighter, and it put
the brakes on North Korean clandestine flights dropping saboteurs
and spies in the 1960s and 70s.
This isn't the first time the Koreans have sold off some F-5s.
In 1972, they sold a number of them to the ill-fated Republic of
Vietnam. It's not even the only time they've sold them for small
change. The Phillipines now operates a fleet of F-5s which cost
them, you got it, $100 each. But this is the last batch of the 120
F-5As and Bs: get them while you can.
South Korea still operates newer F-5E and F-5F jets as second
line fighters (Korea also has F-15 and F-16s). Many of the E and F
model F-5s were made by Hanjin Corporation in Korea, with engines
built by Samsung. (The aviation parts of both conglomerates are now
part of Korean Aerospace Industries).
Interest in the current group of jets comes from as far away as
Poland, which would like to replace its Soviet-era planes with
something more economical, and Mexico, which is always looking for
a bargain. The low-cost export of the planes would have to be
approved by the originator -- the USA -- under arms control
protocols. That is not expected to be a problem with any of the
likely customers.
But, unless you are a nation, you're probably not going to get
the same deal.
Don't despair, though, if you simply must have an F-5. You'll
pay a lot more for it (maybe $3.5 million, and remember you burn
450 gallons of Jet A an hour, and the thing was designed to be
maintained by the money-no-object US Government, with all that
entails for a private owner), but Thornton Aircraft can hook you
up.