F-5

[Finn]

I guess for some reason they would taxi with the engine FOD covers in place:

 

 

Jari

[MikeC]

Well if those are solid covers he's not going to get very far.

[Palm-tree]

 

1 hour ago, Finn said:

I guess for some reason they would taxi with the engine FOD covers in place:

 
Hilarious.....why would “they” try to do that?

[Cheetah11]

 

I think it is a posed photo. All the RBF tags are still in place, no bombs are going to drop.

[Derek B]

This appears to have been SOP. I would guess that this practice was to prevent accidental FOD damage to the engines during the taxi phase to the holding point, where they would probably be removed during the 'last chance' arming checks and pin removal prior to take off (hopefully, someone with experience of this can confirm my theory?).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Derek

[Kagemusha]

I think you're spot on Derek.

[Grunticus]

More importantly: why is there no 1/32 F-5A and F-5B available? So many operators...The Belcher bits conversion doesn’t count.

[RLWP]

Maybe it is to stop ingesting birds during take-off...

 

Richard

[kensar]

Looks like they could be screens over the intakes.

 

[quang]

These curious intake FOD covers were created and made by the South Vietnamese to be used only on VNAF F-5As.

They were originally made for the first Skoshi Tigers F-5A which visited South Vietnam and were later passed to the VNAF.

 

The construction was indigenous and fairly simple. It’s basically a nylon mosquito net over a metal frame. The covers were attached to the intakes via a buckle and a metal band  As the covers were hollow, I suppose they could be used while the engines were turning.

 

They were invariably painted yellow with the three horizontal bars in red to represent the South Vietnamese national flag (like the fin flash on VNAF aircraft).

 

Here are the ones I scratch-built for my 1/48 Wolfpack F-5A.

 

 

HTH

Quang

Edited April 28, 2021 by quang

[firefly7]

Beautiful piece of scratch building there Quang, those covers look great.

[quang]

Thank you, firefly. 
During my research, I found a youTube video showing a VNAF crew installing the FOD covers. Wish I could remember where.

[Derek B]

Nice guards Quang 

 

I am not certain that they were only exclusive RVNAF items, as they are also appear to be evident on USAF inventory aircraft as well (as seen in the images below. However, these could have been aircraft which were just about to be handed over to the RVNAF?). I think that you are correct about RVNAF 'Skoshi Tiger' aircraft making extensive use of these FOD guards - certainly an very interesting 'addition' to any model.

 

Putting my aircraft engineering hat on for a moment, I would have thought it unlikely that any 'local' designed and manufactured FOD guard would have been approved for use by Northrop unless they had fully assessed the design and approved it, so my view is that it is more likely to be a pre-existing Northrop designed asset.

 

A F-5B of 602d TFS at Bien Hoa, 1966

 

 

 

 

Derek

[quang]

You might be right Derek as my theory is only speculation based on what I found on the internet.

It could be that these covers were approved by Northrop although I’ve never found these covers used anywhere else outside Vietnam.
As a matter of fact, the F-5s on your photos could be the Skoshi Tigers which later were turned on to the VNAF.

 

[Derek B]

2 hours ago, quang said:

You might be right Derek as my theory is only speculation based on what I found on the internet.

It could be that these covers were approved by Northrop although I’ve never found these covers used anywhere else outside Vietnam.
As a matter of fact, the F-5s on your photos could be the Skoshi Tigers which later were turned on to the VNAF.

 

 

Like you, I also cannot find any evidence of them being used elsewhere (at least, on an internet image search; it does not necessarily mean that they were not existing items which were used routinely for normal for static ground running - perhaps no one was bothered to take a picture of them?). So, with lack of any further evidence, we may have to assume that they were developed specifically for use by the RVNAF - all interesting stuff!

 

Derek