Hobby Master 1/72 HA3362 Northrop F-5E Tiger II "Sion iger" 036, Fliegerstaffel 19, Sion Air Base Closure, 2017

The Northrop F-5 tactical fighter was designed as an extremely maneuverable, supersonic fighter with a high rate of reliability at a low operating cost. The F-5 first flew on July 30, 1959 with the first customer delivery in 1964. The last of more than 2,600 F-5’s was produced in 1989 and about two-thirds of these are still in service with 26 countries more than 4 decades later. The F-5 was manufactured by Northrop Grumman and under license in Canada, Taiwan, South Korea, Spain and Switzerland.

F-5E J-3036 was manufactured in 1976 as 76-01561 and leased to the Austrian Air Force as J-3036. The aircraft was returned in 1980 to the U.S. and in 1982 sold to the Swiss Air Force. After several moves the aircraft went to Sion AB in 2005. That same year J-3036 was one of 12 F-5Es leased to Austria until 2008 when the 12 F-5Es were returned to the Swiss. In 2016 J-3036 was SOC but in 2017 was given the special paint scheme to mark the closure of Fliegerstaffel 19 Sion AB.