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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 0010.PDF
10 FLIGHT,, 7 January 1955 ALL-WEATHER MYSTERE French Transonic Two-seater Powered by an Afterburning Avon IT is now just six years since Avions Marcel Dassault beganto develop a jet fighter. The first prototype carried thecompany type-number MD-450, and was named Ouragan (Hurricane). It was powered by a Hispano/Rolls-Royce Nene, and had a wing with slight sweep, rather like that of the Venom. The armament was four 20mm guns, and the limit- ing Mach number 0.83. During 1952 and 1953 a total of 350 Ouragans entered service with the French Armee de I'Air, and a further 71 were bought by India, with the name Toofani. Logical development of the Ouragan involved increasing thesweep of the wing and increasing the power. These improve- ments led to the Mystere, versions of which have been poweredwith the Hispano Tay, Hispano Verdon, SNECMA Atar, Pratt and Whitney J48 ....... and Rolls-Royce Avon. A very greatnumber of different types of Mystere have already appeared, the two mostimportant being the Mystere II C (Atar 101D) of which 150 are being boughtby the French Government for the Armee de I'Air, and the Mystere IV A (HispanoVerdon) of which 225 are being paid for by an off-shore order by the U.S.A.F. Production examples of both types ofMystere are now being delivered. It is to be noted that the report by U.S.Senators Stuart Symington and Harry Bridges describes the detail workman-ship of the Mystere as being "far above the average" and "well up to the bestAmerican standards"—which becomes the more outstanding as one reads theSenators' comments on other manu- facturers. Dassault have about 3,000employees at plants dispersed widely throughout France. In addition, about25,000 other personnel are employed on Mystere work among many sub-con-tractors. The only fly in the ointment from the production point of view seemsto be that the Mystere (unlike, say, the Hunter) is by no means designed formass-production. The Dassault company have now pro-duced an Avon-powered all-weather Mystere, designated Mystere IV N,which is illustrated here. The original Ouragans and Mysteres were all day intercepters, but a number of prototypes were built with lateralintakes—and one with two seats—with a view to the eventual development of an effective all-weather machine. The IV N doesnot, in fact, have lateral intakes but employs a single straight- through duct passing under the cockpit, and first introduced onthe similarly powered Mystere IV B. The airframe of the IV N is essentially similar to that of theIV B, but about 4ft 7in has been added to the fuselage length to accommodate the navigator, seated behind the pilot. Both crew-members have a S.N.C.A.S.O. automatic ejection seat and the two cockpits are covered by a single sliding canopy. A veryimpressive fuel capacity is provided, there being virtually con- tinuous tankage throughout each wing between the spars andfurther large tanks surrounding the centre-fuselage air duct and beneath theengine. The engine is at present a Rolls- Royce Avon RA.7R, but a variant ofthe Avon is to be licence-built by His- pano Suiza, and it is the latter engine(with a five-figure thrust) which will probably go into whatever IV Ns areordered into production. The front end of the new prototypebears a close resemblance to that of the F-86D Sabre, and it is reasonable toassume that it incorporates the Ameri- can "two-dish" radar fire-control systemcarried by that aircraft. The armament itself is of unusual interest. A single 30mmcannon is carried on each flank of the forward fuselage, fed from a tank con-taining 100 rounds. These two guns fire out along blast channels formed by there-entrant channel between the intake and the mould line of the nose. Directlybehind the two ammunition tanks is a retractable container housing 52 un-guided air-to-air rockets, which are rippled away automatically by the radar-ranging circuit. Four further rocket containers, each holding 19 missiles, ma 'be carried under the wings. All the primary control surfaces argoverned by servo assisters, the overa response being of a very high order. Th:gaps between moving and fixed surface-; are extremely narrow and all balancingis internal. All Mysteres are fitted win an automatic stabilizer and yaw-dampe .
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