It was the first plane I ever flew on, Oct 1974. Braniff, El Paso to D/FW. Dad had fun telling me to watch the wings flap, which they sorta did, scaring my little eight-year-old brain.
I'd prefer a 747 any day of the week. The wings don't flap, amongst other creature comforts.
Also... the F-5A & F-5B (as introduced in 1962) were NOT air-air fighters per-se... they were strike fighters, with only rudimentary air-air capability (ranging gunsight only, no true air-air radar).
It was only with the introduction of the F-5E/F (with its Emerson Electric AN/APQ-153 multi-mode pulse-doppler radar) in 1972 that it became a really capable air-air fighter.