Dassault Mirage IIIR
In the 1950s, a number of nations began work on supersonic interceptors: the United States with the F-102 and F-104, the Soviet Union with the Su-7 and MiG-21, and Britain with the Lightning. France issued a requirement for a similar type that could climb to 60,000 feet in six minutes and be capable of over Mach 1 in level flight. Dassault, which had already begun production of the successful Mystere series of jet fighter-bombers, offered the Mystere-Delta in 1953. Delta wings were a relatively new concept, but offered a great degree of lift without drag, wing strength, and additional space for fuel stowage, though the tradeoff was that it required a great deal of runway, would not have quite the manueverability of conventional aircraft, and had a tendency towards stalling as the wing would blank out the tail. The Mystere-Delta would be powered by twin Armstrong-Siddeley MD30R Viper turbojets, with the addition of a SEPR liquid rocket motor. Renamed the Mirage in 1955, the design met all the requirements—but it was so small its entire armament would consist of a single missile. A subsequent twin-engined but larger design, the Mirage II, never left the drawing board.
Dassault then found a single turbojet capable of powering the Mirage II, despite a 20 percent increase in weight: the SNECMA Atar 09. Using the newly-developed area rule principle, the subsequent Mirage III still met the requirements issued in 1953 and would be able to carry a much larger warload. The Mirage III prototype first flew in November 1956, and was followed in May 1958 by the Mirage IIIA pre-production aircraft, which had a slightly larger wing, a longer nose to accommodate a radar, and a drag chute. The SEPR rocket was retained, but even without it, the Mirage III was able to achieve Mach 2.2, the first European aircraft to do so. As the rocket was redundant, required the removal of the two 30mm cannon, and had a tendency to catch fire, it was never carried operationally by the Mirage III and was eventually replaced by a ventral fin. The aircraft finally entered production as the Mirage IIIC fighter and Mirage IIIB trainer in 1961. This was followed by the slightly longer Mirage IIIE multirole fighter, which had more fuel and was considered the most successful of the Mirage III variants.
The Mirage III would become France’s most successful fighter of the 20th Century: nearly 2000 were produced, not only in France, but also in Australia, Belgium, and Switzerland. 20 air forces would fly the Mirage III in its various forms, and even in 2011, fifty years after the first Mirage III flew, at least four nations still fly updated Mirages. Still more nations flew the Mirage 5, which differed only slightly from the Mirage III, and several nations still fly this version as well. Gradually, Mirages have been updated with advanced avionics (the Mirage IIING used fly-by-wire avionics developed for the Mirage 2000) and often canards on the intakes to improve low-speed flying and decrease runway usage.
In combat, the Mirage III participated in three major campaigns: the Six-Day War, the Yom Kippur War, and the Falklands War; two of those wars were fought by Israeli Mirage IIICJs. The Israelis had ordered the Mirage IIIC in 1962, and in their first combat action in 1965, they shot down eight Syrian MiGs. The Israelis typically armed their Mirage IIICJs with two AIM-9 Sidewinders, and in the hands of the highly-trained Israeli pilots, ran up lopsided kill ratios—despite the Mirage III being designed more as a pure interceptor than a fighter. While the Israelis cursed the Mirage’s tendency to stall at high angles of attack, they compensated with adjusted tactics. Not only was the Mirage used as a fighter, it was also used as a strike aircraft, most notably with Operation Moked on 4 June 1967, the opening day of the Six-Day War. In 24 hours, Israeli pilots, flying mostly Mirage IIIs, devastated three Arab air forces, which allowed Israel to achieve air superiority instantly and directly affected the outcome of the war. Israeli used its now-camouflaged Mirage IIIs during the Yom Kippur War, but had, except for training aircraft, phased out the aircraft by 1980, replaced by F-15s and F-16s. Israeli aces Ran Ronen and Giora Epstein remain the top Mirage III aces.
No other air force had the success that the Israelis enjoyed with the Mirage III: Argentina used theirs over the Falklands in 1982, but found themselves limited to only ten minutes flying time due to range, while the Mirages were outclassed against better-flown, all-aspect missile armed Sea Harriers. Most Mirage IIIs have been consigned to museums and scrapheaps; Pakistan is the last to fly Mirage IIIs operationally.
This particular Mirage IIIR was part of the Armee de l'Air's dedicated tactical reconnaissance wing, ER 33, based at Strasbourg; the escadrille's patch is carried on the tail. Though a black and white photo, 33-NJ likely is painted in standard French tactical camouflage of the time, dark gray and green over light gray. It also looks like it's been the victim of several "taggings" by various NATO units: there is a silhouette of an aircraft towards the middle fuselage, a "Spook" from a F-4 Phantom II unit behind the national insignia, and a Canadian flag on the nose gear door! Tagging was a time-honored joke between units in Europe, especially if the aircraft in question had landed at the wrong base due to accident or bad weather.
33-NJ was not around much longer after this picture was taken at Ramstein, probably sometime in 1972: it was written off in a landing accident at Strasbourg on 25 May 1973.
(Disclaimer: I found this picture and other black and white photos in one of Dad's old photo boxes. I thought he had taken them at Ramstein in 1977, but these actually date much earlier than that, possibly as early as 1972. As such, I am not sure who took these pictures. I originally took them down from Flickr, but then decided these are historical artifacts and should be seen. If you know who may have taken these pictures, please let me know.)
Dassault Mirage IIIR
In the 1950s, a number of nations began work on supersonic interceptors: the United States with the F-102 and F-104, the Soviet Union with the Su-7 and MiG-21, and Britain with the Lightning. France issued a requirement for a similar type that could climb to 60,000 feet in six minutes and be capable of over Mach 1 in level flight. Dassault, which had already begun production of the successful Mystere series of jet fighter-bombers, offered the Mystere-Delta in 1953. Delta wings were a relatively new concept, but offered a great degree of lift without drag, wing strength, and additional space for fuel stowage, though the tradeoff was that it required a great deal of runway, would not have quite the manueverability of conventional aircraft, and had a tendency towards stalling as the wing would blank out the tail. The Mystere-Delta would be powered by twin Armstrong-Siddeley MD30R Viper turbojets, with the addition of a SEPR liquid rocket motor. Renamed the Mirage in 1955, the design met all the requirements—but it was so small its entire armament would consist of a single missile. A subsequent twin-engined but larger design, the Mirage II, never left the drawing board.
Dassault then found a single turbojet capable of powering the Mirage II, despite a 20 percent increase in weight: the SNECMA Atar 09. Using the newly-developed area rule principle, the subsequent Mirage III still met the requirements issued in 1953 and would be able to carry a much larger warload. The Mirage III prototype first flew in November 1956, and was followed in May 1958 by the Mirage IIIA pre-production aircraft, which had a slightly larger wing, a longer nose to accommodate a radar, and a drag chute. The SEPR rocket was retained, but even without it, the Mirage III was able to achieve Mach 2.2, the first European aircraft to do so. As the rocket was redundant, required the removal of the two 30mm cannon, and had a tendency to catch fire, it was never carried operationally by the Mirage III and was eventually replaced by a ventral fin. The aircraft finally entered production as the Mirage IIIC fighter and Mirage IIIB trainer in 1961. This was followed by the slightly longer Mirage IIIE multirole fighter, which had more fuel and was considered the most successful of the Mirage III variants.
The Mirage III would become France’s most successful fighter of the 20th Century: nearly 2000 were produced, not only in France, but also in Australia, Belgium, and Switzerland. 20 air forces would fly the Mirage III in its various forms, and even in 2011, fifty years after the first Mirage III flew, at least four nations still fly updated Mirages. Still more nations flew the Mirage 5, which differed only slightly from the Mirage III, and several nations still fly this version as well. Gradually, Mirages have been updated with advanced avionics (the Mirage IIING used fly-by-wire avionics developed for the Mirage 2000) and often canards on the intakes to improve low-speed flying and decrease runway usage.
In combat, the Mirage III participated in three major campaigns: the Six-Day War, the Yom Kippur War, and the Falklands War; two of those wars were fought by Israeli Mirage IIICJs. The Israelis had ordered the Mirage IIIC in 1962, and in their first combat action in 1965, they shot down eight Syrian MiGs. The Israelis typically armed their Mirage IIICJs with two AIM-9 Sidewinders, and in the hands of the highly-trained Israeli pilots, ran up lopsided kill ratios—despite the Mirage III being designed more as a pure interceptor than a fighter. While the Israelis cursed the Mirage’s tendency to stall at high angles of attack, they compensated with adjusted tactics. Not only was the Mirage used as a fighter, it was also used as a strike aircraft, most notably with Operation Moked on 4 June 1967, the opening day of the Six-Day War. In 24 hours, Israeli pilots, flying mostly Mirage IIIs, devastated three Arab air forces, which allowed Israel to achieve air superiority instantly and directly affected the outcome of the war. Israeli used its now-camouflaged Mirage IIIs during the Yom Kippur War, but had, except for training aircraft, phased out the aircraft by 1980, replaced by F-15s and F-16s. Israeli aces Ran Ronen and Giora Epstein remain the top Mirage III aces.
No other air force had the success that the Israelis enjoyed with the Mirage III: Argentina used theirs over the Falklands in 1982, but found themselves limited to only ten minutes flying time due to range, while the Mirages were outclassed against better-flown, all-aspect missile armed Sea Harriers. Most Mirage IIIs have been consigned to museums and scrapheaps; Pakistan is the last to fly Mirage IIIs operationally.
This particular Mirage IIIR was part of the Armee de l'Air's dedicated tactical reconnaissance wing, ER 33, based at Strasbourg; the escadrille's patch is carried on the tail. Though a black and white photo, 33-NJ likely is painted in standard French tactical camouflage of the time, dark gray and green over light gray. It also looks like it's been the victim of several "taggings" by various NATO units: there is a silhouette of an aircraft towards the middle fuselage, a "Spook" from a F-4 Phantom II unit behind the national insignia, and a Canadian flag on the nose gear door! Tagging was a time-honored joke between units in Europe, especially if the aircraft in question had landed at the wrong base due to accident or bad weather.
33-NJ was not around much longer after this picture was taken at Ramstein, probably sometime in 1972: it was written off in a landing accident at Strasbourg on 25 May 1973.
(Disclaimer: I found this picture and other black and white photos in one of Dad's old photo boxes. I thought he had taken them at Ramstein in 1977, but these actually date much earlier than that, possibly as early as 1972. As such, I am not sure who took these pictures. I originally took them down from Flickr, but then decided these are historical artifacts and should be seen. If you know who may have taken these pictures, please let me know.)