Northrop F-7 Shark
The story of the Northrop F3T Shark -older cousin of the better-known F-5 Tiger- begins in the mid-1950s as the US Navy issues a request for a light jet fighter to operate from its light carriers. Northrop’s bid won the navy’s approval and in 1957 the first prototype of the Shark, the XF3T, made its maiden flight. Two years later, the US Navy decided to retire its remaining escort and light carriers, ending the frontline career of the F3T merely eight months after it entered service. Nevertheless, the T-36 Shark would endure as the US Navy’s main advanced trainer until the 1980s.
However, the international career of the type was more successful. The F3T (redesignated F-7 in 1962) was exported to a number of countries looking for a low-cost modern fighter, much like his successor the F-5 Tiger would be. The Argentine Navy (Armada de la República Argentina) received its first F-7 in 1963 with its new aircraft carrier
Veinticinco de Mayo, the former
Saipan-class light carrier USS
Curtiss. Both the carrier and the F-7s had been intended to go to China, but after the 1959 Sino-American split they had been seized by the US and quickly re-sold to Argentina. At first only flying the F-7A, Argentina later acquired some radar-equipped F-7Cs and land-based F-7Es for its Air Force.
The Argentine Navy’s F-7 Sharks saw action together with the nation’s Skyhawks and Étendards during the Falklands War against the Royal Navy. Most of the C models went down with
Veinticinco de Mayo when she was sunk by HMS
Ark Royal’s Blackburn Buccaneers on May 1st or were destroyed attempting to bomb the British battlegroup. 3-A-250 was shot down on that day by a Fairey Stingray FAW.11 piloted by Lt. Cdr. Gareth Dewey and his observer Lt. Sean Doyle, the pair’s first of five confirmed kills, the only aces of the conflict.
The Argentine Navy continued to fly the Shark after the war and the last ones were retired in 1999, at which point they were the last F-7s in service.
General characteristics
Crew: 1
Length: 36 ft 1 in (11 m)
Wingspan (without missiles): 24 ft (7.3 m)
Height: 8 ft 2 in (2.5 m)
Empty weight: 5,980 lb (2,713 kg)
Gross weight: 10,247 lb (4,648 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 11,875 lb (5,386 kg)
Powerplant: 2 x General Electric J85-GE-5A afterburning turbojet engines, 2,680 lbf (12 kN) thrust each dry, 3,850 lbf (17 kN) with afterburner
Performance
Max speed: Mach 1.1 (854 mph; 1,375 km/h; 742 kn) at 34,000 ft (10,360 m)
Combat range: 262 nmi (300 km; 186 mi) with two sidewinders and external fuel tanks
Ceilling: 41,000 ft (12,500 m)
Rate of climb: 29,000 ft/min (146 m/s)
Armament and avionics
Guns: 1 or 2 x 20 mm Colt Mk 12 cannon with 60 rounds per gun (portside gun can be removed and relaced with a refueling probe)
Hardpoints: one centerline and two underwings, plus two wingtips pylons
Bombs and missiles: up to 3,500 pounds (1,580 kg) of ordnance, including various bomb types and AIM-9 sidewinder air-to-air missiles
Radar: AN/APQ-153 fire-control radar