Northrop Jet Fighter May Come This Year

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31016, 23 March 1966, Page 1

Northrop Jet Fighter May Come This Year

(From Our Own Reporter) WELLINGTON, March 22. One or more Northrop Freedom Fighter supersonic jets may come to New Zealand towards the end of the year.

The Northrop F 5 Freedom Fighter is one of three aircraft considered most likely for selection as new combat jets for the Royal New Zealand Air Force.

The other two, the McDon-

nell F 4 Phantom and the Aus-tralian-built Mirage 111, were in New Zealand for the Mangere air pageant in January and were able to show their paces to politicians, financial and military men. Northrop agents were reported to be trying hard to get some of their planes here for the pageant. The only Freedom Fighters then in this part of the world were in Vietnam, taking part in a series of evaluation trials for the United States Air Force. The evaluation programme produced a patchwork of results that made a return uncertain.

One aircraft gave an impressive display of survival ability by limping home on one engine after the other had absorbed a Viet Cong shellblast that almost blew a wing off.

Results of the evaluation showed four major modifications necessary for the design before the plane could meet U.S.A.F. or R.N.Z.A.F. requirements.

Reports from Saigon and Washington say the United States Government is considering sending 100 of the 900 m.p.h.-plus fighters to Viet-

nam to fill gaps created by aircraft losses in the war.

The Washington report says the U.S.A.F. plans to borrow Fss from the military aid programme until it can take delivery of its more advanced close-support plane, the A-7A Corsair 11, in late 1968 or early 1969. The Freedom Fighters would then be released to map countries. A Saigon report puts the number at 100 Fss for joint operation by South Vietnamese and American pilots, and adds that they will be the basic aircraft, without the modifications suggested for the R.N.Z.A.F.

Northrop agents in Wellington seem confident they can get their aircraft to New Zealand if the U.S.A.F. carries out its plan.