Who is the designer of the Northrop F-5?

[hsinchong]

Was it Edgar Schmued or Welko Gasich/Lee Begin that designed the F-5 or not?

 

[TomcatViP]

Why would you want to exclude any of them?

 

[Arjen]

In his Flying Wings & Radical Things, Tony Chong writes the N-156 (T-38 / F-5) was drawn by Joe Talley and George Gluyas. Schmued and Gasich had several angry confrontations over the N-156, with Gasich (Northrop's Chief of Preliminary Design) advocating embedding the engines in the fuselage to attain supersonic performance. Eventually, Schmued (Vice President of Engineering) relented.

Tony Chong writes the N-156 'was very much a Schmued-influenced design', he doesn't mention Lee Begin. Leon Begin is mentioned as an important member of the T-38 / F-5 design team here:

Leon F. Begin, the internationally renowned designer of such... - UPI Archives

Leon F. Begin, the internationally renowned designer of such aircraft as the T-38 and F-5 fighter planes and the new F-20 Tigershark aircraft, has died of...

www.upi.com

The book shows some N-156 precursors, the oldest has wing-mounted engines.

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

There is never one person who 'designs an aircraft'. The first concept sketch may be done by one person, but turning that to an aircraft takes hundreds or thousands of people. The "chief engineer" or "chief designer" is essentially a technical manager, responsible for the success of the program as a whole, making decisions.

Begin definitely was heavily involved in the F-5 configuration development along with Gluyas and others. Gasich was their boss, in charge of the Preliminary Design department, and a strong influence on the F-5. Schmued was Gasich's boss, and by this time squarely a management guy, though he did still have technical influence.

An Air Force guy commented on the N-156 rollout "you tell its a Schmued design", which amused some of the Northrop F-5 team including Gasich at the time knowing how he'd had to fight to get the engines in the fuselage against Schmued's advice.

 

[NMaude]

he'd had to fight to get the engines in the fuselage against Schmued's advice.

So I suppose Schmued had wanted the engines mounted in wing pods?