Thailand is one of the top travel destinations for Taiwanese. Last year, there were 789,923 arrivals from Taiwan to Thailand. For those who bothered to make the trip to the Royal Thai Air Force museum in Don Muang, they will be able to find four former Taiwanese F-5As there.
Walk right into the main hall, visitors will be greeted by a F-5A #1311 hanging from the wall. Although painted in RTAF 103 Squadron markings, this is a former RoCAF F-5A #1275.
In the back of the museum, you will find three F-5A fuselages with traditional Chinese wordings on them. These are former Taiwanese Tigers #1271, 1258 and 1295. 1295 was the last F-5A to enter service in Taiwan.
Why those airframes ended up in Thailand is still a mystery.
Those airframes were part of the Enhance Plus influx of aircraft and military equipment airlifted to South Vietnam in 1972 before the war ended January 27 1973. The US didn’t have enough F-5s to give SVN and borrowed F-5s from Iran, Taiwan, South Korea and a few willing allies with the provision that their aircraft would be returned once SVN received the new F-5Es. Most countries preferred to receive the newer F-5Es than take back older F-5As. When SVN collapsed April 1975, F-5A/B’s along with 27 new F-5Es were flown to Thailand by SVN pilots. The newer F-5Es were taken back to USA for USAF/USN Aggressor training and Thailand got the older SVN aircraft including the Taiwan F&5As for themselves
I suspected that too. Thanks.