It’s a little hard after all this time for the average person (like me) to really understand the magnitude of the disaster that was the 1986 Chernobyl Reactor #4 meltdown. Although the Russians themselves are pretty tight-lipped about the whole thing, it is roughly estimated that somewhere above 300,000 workers ( called “liquidators,” ironically) were cycled through the clean-up process between 1986 and 1989, although as many as 500,000 might have been involved. At least 40 died immediately or only shortly thereafter, and of the rest . . . well, the stories aren’t pleasant. One worker from a team of around 30 states that he and four others are the only ones alive today, all others having succumbed to cancers of various sorts. What the ultimate death toll was (or will be) is unknown, but it may have resulted in as many as a million premature deaths worldwide.

History

Built at a time when US fighter aircraft were getting more complex and expensive, the Northrop Grumman company decided to go against the grain and build a lightweight fighter based on their successful T-38 Talon design. The first F-5 Freedom Fighter flew on July 30, 1959. It proved to be a very nimble and adaptable aircraft but it was never widely adopted by the USAF. It did find willing operators in the several foreign air arms including the Republic of China (ROC) also known as Taiwan. The island nation produced their own licensed built F-5s including 66 of the two seat F5-F models. This kit presents four aircraft of the 46th Aggressor Squadron. As the name implies, this unit trains fighter pilots in air combat maneuvering by engaging in mock combats, recording the results and using those recordings to teach pilots how to prevail.