f20

Northrop was told that there would be no sales of front line US fighter aircraft to third world nations. Based on that assurance from the government, they invested in developing a cheap, high performance, fighter for export. After the company was heavily invested in the F-20 Tigershark, the Carter administration pulled the rug out from under them by releasing the F-16 for overseas sales.

This a/c is Northrop F-5G / F-20A Tigershark 82-0062 (N4416T) which was later lost w/ Darrel Cornell during a demo @ Suwon AB, S. Korea on 10 October 1984 -- probably due to G-LOC while doing a demo. A second F-20 82-0063 (N3986B) also crashed during a demo at Goose Bay on 14 May 85 killing David Barnes. The last F-20 completed 82-0064 (N44671) survives at the California Science Center in Los Angeles, and 82-0065 was cnx'd before it was completed. An inauspicious end to a very promising design.

References I've come across indicate that Burri was Swiss, not a French national. The name Ernest Burri shows up multiple times at a French-language website about Swiss aviators. I can't read French, but from what I can puzzle out it looks as though he flew for the French during WWI.

whyaduck: Thanks! We'll change Burri's nationality in the source data and reload the description.

wow the plane in this picture is so different from now days. It is amazing to look at a picture like this and think about how the plane could actually fly. It doesn't seem to safe and the engine must have been very small. Great picture.

a horseback pilot! what a metaphor :) Hi, I'm an admin for a group called New Directions, and we'd love to have this photograph added to the group!

I wonder what the story is with the split ailerons on the top wing. For that matter, what model airplane is it?