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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 1620.PDF
432-433 FLIGHT International, 5 September 1963 A sizzling pass at "plein gaz sec" with the SEPR 844 rocket motor lit. The Mirage is carrying its Matra SI I missile and two Sidewinder rails. In this configuration it can reach 75,000ft at Mach 1.8 LES CIGOGNES DE DIJON... at speeds below about 240kt. Landing technique is different, because the aircraft is then well "on the back of the drag curve" and considerable power is required to effect any increase in speed. The normal attitude adjustment technique is likely to produce sink rather than speed. Landing a Mirage is therefore a rather new technique to pilots unaccustomed to delta wings; but French squadron pilots apparently have no major troubles. New pilots come to the 2e Escadre with some 300hr flying experi ence, of which about 100 are on the Mystere IVA and the remainder on the Magister and T-33. They then go through some basic simulator training and a series of sorties in the Mirage IIIB, of which each Escadre possesses a small number, in order to experience the flight envelope up to Mach 1.8. This introduction is followed by a dozen sorties in the Mirage IIIC, again concerned with general handling, and, after some three months and 35 sorties, the pilot has learned formation flying, high- and low-level navi gation, air-to-ground firing, basic interception methods, use of the Cyrano for radar ranging and basic armament work. Then begins the all-weather indoctrination, with several night sorties and further simulator training with particular emphasis on the full use of the Cyrano and delivery of the various missiles. After six months and about 100 sorties, the pilot is considered fully trained. Powerplant of the Mirage IIIC is the SNECMA Atar 09 B3, with a maximum continuous rating of 9,3701b thrust, or 13,2301b with full reheat. Like all members of the Atar family it is a single- shaft straight turbojet of remarkable simplicity. The Mirage HIE and IIIR have the more advanced Atar 9C, and later versions of the engine have been evolved for the Mirage IV bomber. Mirage Operations A remarkable fact, and one which may well be unique for this category of aircraft, is that all Mirage IIIC pilots have to make practice dead-stick landings, with air-brakes out to counteract the residual thrust of the engine, which is held at low r.p.m. This involves reaching a "high key" position overhead the base at 15,000ft, gliding at 240kt with a rate of descent of some 7,000ft/min. The most important factor is to keep the speed up, but the aircraft remains perfectly manoeuvrable and the engine can continue to supply hydraulic power at idling speed. There is automatic load shedding control in the electrical system, so that the pilot has very little to do to preserve the essential services. The flare-out must obviously be begun at a considerable height above ground, but the considerable drag of the delta wing at high angles of attack makes the aircraft relatively insensitive, in terms of length of landing run, to touchdown speed. Drag will very easily kill too high a speed at the round-out. Dead-stick landing is, of course, only contemplated on a runway, and the pilot would eject if he were out of reach of an airfield. Gear-up landing at the speed and angle of attack necessary for normal landing is not contemplated. The characteristic cruciform drag parachute is normally used for every landing in order to conserve brake and tyre wear, but it is by no means essential. The chute itself is prepacked in a small canister and quickly clipped on to the tail before take-off. Some of the canisters on the Mirages at Dijon were severely dented by impact on the runway during previous landings, but were still in use. Being primarily an intercepter, the Mirage IIIC carries only two communications radios and a CSF radio compass on which four beacons may be pre-tuned and subsequently selected by push button. Main electronic equipment is the CSF Cyrano, now fitted with a new short plastic radome resembling the early ballasted, radarless nose. Cyrano provides search, lock-on and ranging modes and is capable of guiding the semi-active Matra R.511 missile and, after replacement of one adapter box, the radar version of the new R.530 as well. Cyrano has no mapping mode
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