I have an issue with the new F-20A added to the game. Yes, I absolutely love this plane. It is one of my favorite planes of all time. However, there are issues with this plane in many ways. I feel this plane is too good to be a premium, and Gaijin nerfed this plane so that it would fit the premium role. The flare loadout is a bit small with no way to add more flares, it has a small fuel tank with no way to add drop tanks unlike in real life. On top of that, it can only carry 6 Aim-9Ls or 2 Aim-9Ls and 2 Aim-7Fs when is was tested with at least Aim-9Ms. There is a book that was has provided all of this information that is public and able to be purchased. Within this book it provides a lot of information about planned variants including the F-5J/F-20D. This variant would fit as a tech tree vehicle very well within the 12.3-12.7 range of BR. I just feel that if a War Thunder Dev could look at this book, that there would be a possibility for a future F-5J/F-20D added to the American tech tree and other foreign tech trees such as Germany as multiple nations were interested in the F-20 when it was first introduced. Here is a link to both the book, and a few picture of the book.
Book: Northrop F-20 Tigershark Ginter Air Force Legends 228 By Northrop Test Pilot Paul Metz — David Doyle Books
Pictures of book: F-20, the best plane that never entered production - #21 by Shin_Kazama
Please War Thunder Developers, please take a look at these.
This book also shows the missiles tested and the rest of possible loadouts along with drop tanks and different radars and radar modes.
9Ms would be a gamechanger, but I think they might hold off on that and 120s until we get rank 9 and higher BRs with ARH coming in the future.
Edit; There’s already people having problems with its rank as a premium, might be a bit before it gets an upgrade
Sometimes a weapon loadout “nerf” actually makes vehicles more OP because it can be at BR’s where it will perform better. If this thing was given aim 9Ms, it would need to be 12.3-12.7 where the F-16/F-15 are objectively better. This way, it can be lower in BR and obliterate things.
That’s the thing though. The F-20 has VERY similar performance to the F-16 and would fit perfectly in the tech tree as either a 12.3 or even 12.7 vehicle between the F-16A and F-16C or somewhere else in the tech tree. The F-20 has such high potential that Gaijin never tapped into
I’m gonna unfortunately have to make a response that you won’t like, but the F-20 as it is in-game right now is the most realistic/concrete way for it to be added. Everything you mentioned, such as the “F-5J”, as well as most of the further weapons, are purely paper.
When it comes to the Tigershark, the only ones to make it beyond the proposal/concept stage were protos 2 and 3, which are represented in-game as they were during testing IRL.
AMRAAMs, 7Ms, etc were only ever proposals, as there is no concrete evidence from primary sources to suggest compatibility or the capability being there.
As a matter of fact, even AIM-9Ls are pushing this further into paper-plane territory, as it was never tested with them IRL (and likely never would’ve seen usage of them due to the intended customers).
Final conclusion: The F-20 is fine as it is, and is frankly overperforming (I will allow someone else to handle the bug report on that aspect).
I’m not sure that it would. The F-16 has very strong maneuverability. While the F-5C/F-5E have strong maneuverability, I am not sure the F-20’s wings would be able to tolerate the higher G forces accompanying the new engine.
If you look at the picture book link that I posted in the primary post. One of the pictures does show that it is very similar to that of the F-16A
“Planned”, “Paper”, and “Proposed” are all just fancy ways to say Fictional.
Please stop it with this nonsense.
Didn’t pilots literally die because of he amount of G force they sustained in the F-20 which they couldn’t handle but the plane could? Although it might have had a limiter now that I think about it
Picture #26 specifically
Unfortunately, the info from that book does not constitute as a primary source. It is a secondary source. The official flight manual for the F-20 is a primary source.
I will also reiterate my point once again: majority of these proposals never even had physical mockups of the systems or modifications made, or any sort of technology demonstrator. They are paper/proposals, and nothing more.
People die at 4-6Gs. Fighter pilots can pull up to 9Gs. The F-16 frame can pull 12Gs in game.
Can the F-20 pull 12Gs?
IRL, both the F-20 and F-16 were rated at 9Gs
Yes, but they had limiters IRL. We don’t in War Thunder- we go by the max potential of the air frames, not the pilots.
F-20 didn’t. That was one of the reasons why both pilots pulled too many Gs and blacked out during airshow/training routines.
This interview is lowkey the best source that I can provide. This is from a test pilot/designer of the F-20 who helped with the F-20 and if the YF-23. Anyways, he does say that the F-5J/F-20D was in the process of construction they just did not have enough time to fully construct the plane before the program got cancelled. Watch the entire interview before responding to what I have said and then tell me your opinion.
There’s no primary source to back it up. This is only a pilot interview.
I’m going to tell you this once again: The F-5J/F-20D is a paper/proposal aircraft, as there is no evidence to point towards its actual existence. Unless you can provide documents which state “the F-5J existed, and was under construction”, I am inclined to not trust anything you say in regards to it. Good day sir.
thats a really stupid argument to make given PLENTY of planes can push FAR beyond what they are cappable of in game.
Bug report them then.