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NORTHROP'S F-5/T-38 SERIES

 The T-38 Talon was the world's first supersonic aircraft to be built as a trainer. The initial T-38 was delivered  to the
air force in 1961.

 Every F-5/T-38 produced by Northrop was delivered on schedule, at or below the contract price and with performance as promised.

 The F-5/T-38 series is the most widely deployed U.S. built supersonic aircraft in the world. The F-5/T-38 was produced for 31 countries, including the United States.

 F-5's also were built under co-production and licensing arrangements in Canada, the Republic of China, the Republic of
Korea, The Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland.

    Some F-5/T-38 "firsts": 

  --The F-5/T38 was the first production aircraft to make extensive use of aluminum "honeycomb", a light-yet-strong material for the aircraft's flight-control structures.

  --The F-5/T38 was one of the first aircraft to take advantage of the then-new "area rule" theory of aerodynamics, resulting in the fuselage's pinched-in "Coke bottle" shape that reduces drag and improves acceleration at speeds near Mach 1.

  --The F-5/T38 was the first aircraft produced with an overhead rail assembly and installation line, a Northrop innovation that increased assembly workers' speed and efficiency.

  --The T-38 was the world's first supersonic aircraft built as a trainer when it entered service with the U.S. Air Force in 1961.
Although the final Talon was delivered to the Air Force in 1972, the T-38 will continue as the service's primary supersonic trainer well into the next century.

  --The T-38, which completed its Air Force flight test program in 1961, was the first U.S. supersonic aircraft to complete testing without a major accident. The F-5 duplicated that feat a few years later.

  --In 1969, Northrop became the first company to design and fly a graphite composite airframe component when an F-5 took off with a leading-edge wingtip made of  the then-new materials. Today, composites play an ever-increasing role in the manufacture of aircraft structures.

  --During a 1987 U.S. Air Force evaluation af advanced aircraft materials, an F-5 with complex landing-gear door built by Northrop became the first fighter aircraft to fly with a thermoplastic composite part. As part of the same Air Force program, two types of advanced composite materials are being evaluated on F-5's and T-38's in the first large-scale, long-term test of these materials.

  --The first production T-38 delivered to the Air Force is still flying, most recently in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's astronaut training fleet.

  --Pioneer aviator Jacqueline Cochran set six women's flight records in a T-38 in 1961. Major Walter Daniel, a test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base, set four international time-to-climb records in a Talon the next year, topped by a climb to 39,372 feet in 95.7 seconds.