Northrop RF-5 Tigereye (74-1519)

The F-5 Shaped Sonic Boom Demonstrator (SSBD) made a flight from Air Force Plant 42 at Palmdale, California on August 25, 2003. The flights took it to Harper Dry Lake, where an array of pressure sensors had been assembled to monitor sonic boom overpressures. Baseline data had been collected from conventional supersonic fighters. A NASA F-15B equipped with pressure sensors collected data as it flew through the shock wave streaming from the F-5 SSBD.
The nose glove extends the length of the fuselage and nearly doubles its cross-sectional area. The aircraft is a modified F-5E which has a 42.5 inch extension to the nose to make it the same length as a two seat F-5F. Besides the large fairing under the fuselage is a smaller fairing under each inlet.
According to David H. Graham, SSBD Chief Aerodynamicist, "the pinstriping on the aircraft is a graphic representation of our predicted sonic boom signature of the SSBD (blue) and Baseline F-5E (red).