If Santa did a flypast of your hangar this year, you could go after him at Mach 1.3 in your own CF-5 Freedom Fighter. The little fighter, based on Northrop’s design, was built under license by Canadair in the 1960s and 1970s and this aircraft is being sold by a private owner in St. Augustine, Florida, for $1.8 million, about what the aircraft cost when they were built in Cartierville, Quebec. The owner of this one, a two-place trainer model, says it has low hours on it and has had many upgrades, including avionics and oxygen.
The Canadian version was modified from the original Northrop design with a unique innovation to decrease the ground roll on short runways. The aircraft has a two-position nosegear that can be lengthened to increase angle of attack. The result is a 20 percent reduction in runway requirement. The aircraft has license-built Orenda/GE J85-15 engines with afterburners. The inflight refueling probe was a practical necessity for the far-flung operational requirements in Canada since the aircraft only has a range of about 875 miles. The For Sale ad is on aircraftforsale.com.
