By "gills' do you mean the splitter vanes inboard of the intakes? Not an old VFC gent, but I assume same-same as on the F-4...get "clean" (e.g., non-boundary layer air) down the intakes.gills (maybe one of you old SELRES VFC gents can edumacate me on what those are for).
By "gills' do you mean the splitter vanes inboard of the intakes? Not an old VFC gent, but I assume same-same as on the F-4...get "clean" (e.g., non-boundary layer air) down the intakes.
Pretty sure it's #2.@MIDNJAC I'm not sure either I'll ask a guy I work with, he used to crew the AF F-5's. My educated guess just from my time working airplanes would one of three things.
1) allow air in, because I noticed they are open and he's on approach with gear down, and at the lower airspeed it could allow more air to get to the engine(s)
2) get the heat out, the F-5 may have had a bleed air issue in that configuration of flight, and they designed that to allow heat escape (just a guess)
3) it's looks really cool, and the engineer had an extra actuator he needed to get in the engine bay, and said "hey lets put gills here because it'll go with the shark mouth"
I'll find out for sure for you though
Pretty sure it's #2.
A few from the Naval Aviation Museum's Facebook page:
Beached Whales- KA-3B Skywarriors of Tactical Electronics Warfare Squadron (VAQ) 308 pictured at Naval Air Station (NAS) Fallon, Nevada, on October 12, 1977
![]()