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Aviation History
1964
1964 - 2084.PDF
105 FLIGHT International, 16 jUy 1964 Mirage IV final assembly at Dassault's Bordeaux fcctory Dassault HAVING established a near-monopoly in French combat aircraft design, set up a sizeable and active electronics division and taken a considerable share in the French ballistic missile field, Dassault are fairly well placed for the future, but are nevertheless facing the inevitable reduction in the size of modern military aircraft orders. The Bordeaux assembly plant, set up to produce up to 40 medium- sized combat aircraft per month, is now underemployed in the assembly of the last Etendards for the Aeromaritime, of the last 130 or so Mirage Ills of various versions and of the supersonic strike Mirage IV, all of which may well be finished by the end of next year. To fill the impending vacuum, Dassault have entered the commercial market with the Mystere 20 executive jet and the Mystere 30 short- haul transport, both of which are private ventures in association with other manufacturers. They are, in addition, making a deter-. mined effort to secure supremacy in the competition for the Ecap trainer/close-support aircraft, having already begun construction of the twin-engined Cavalier, based as far as possible on the Etendard and probably to be powered by two GE turbojets. In a pioneering development to a French Government specifica- tion, Dassault flew the Balzac V with four Rolls-Royce RB.162 lift engines and an Orpheus for propulsion and are preparing to fly the Mirage IIIV strike aircraft, for which Rolls-Royce lift engines are retained, but a SNECMA P & W TF106 used for propulsion. The programme has been delayed by loss of the Balzac V and difficulties with the TF106. Following up the use of the P & W TF106 in the Mirage IIIV, Dassault are also planning versions of the existing Mirages with this engine. One is known to be the Mirage IIIF, but it has been reported that a TF106-powered version of the Mirage IV is in prospect. Dassault themselves do not admit the existence of such a venture, saying only that the project is still secret. On the Mirage III assembly line, the HIE attack version is now replacing the earlier IIIC and IIIR. The IIIB two-seaters are inter- spersed on the line, as are the IIICZs for South Africa. Most of the sizeable batch of IIICJs for Israel have been delivered, and the initial small batches for Switzerland and Australia are mostly com- plete. The Swiss aircraft will be HIS, IIIRS and IIIBS; the Austra- lian is the IIIO. Of about 600 Mirage Ills being built, some 430 are to be made in France and nearly 300 have already been delivered. Because of the relatively small number of IIICs, there is a shortage of intercepters in the French Air Force and it is reported that exist- ing Vautours might be extensively reworked to afford supersonic dash performance. Though the Mirage IV is a key element in the national deterrent only 50 aircraft have been ordered so far, with a possible additional batch of 12 of a later mark, and Dassault themselves only have 16 per cent of the production work. More than 200 companies are participating in production, including, from Britain, Marconi and Spcrry, but the whole batch of 50 is to be completed by next July. Reading downwards, the Mirage HIE, Mirage IIICZ for South Africa and Mirage HIS for Switzerland. The small tanks on the HIS contain positioning cameras for flight testing At the time of Flight International's visit to Bordeaux, during which the Mirage IV assembly line was opened for inspection for the first time, the sixth production Mirage IV was undergoing acceptance flight testing. At least four production aircraft have been delivered to the French Air Force and are now being used for initial crew- training. The aircraft will be organized in flights of four, based in semi-hardened hangars close to runways. Groups of flights will at all times be on airborne alert, at 4min alert and lower alert. One- third of the force will be on rest and maintenance. In order to provide the appropriate range capability and airborne alert en-
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