French Secret Projects 1: Post War Fighters

French Secret Projects 1: Post War Fighters

Following World War II France made determined efforts to catch-up with other countries in developing high-performance aircraft and designed successful machines to fulfil the needs of the Armée de l’Air, the Marine Nationale and compete in export markets.<p>For the next twenty years they were the only aircraft manufacturers to investigate with equal effort, turbojet, ramjet and rocket propulsion for manned fighters, either taking advantage of German ‘war-booty’ technology or using national pre-war research. <p>A few, such as the Leduc and Griffon ramjet-powered fighters, reached prototype form, the Trident rocket-interceptor advanced to the experimental series (pre-production) stage and the Ouragan, Mystère, Super-Mystère, Mirage III and Etendard were produced in quantity and went on to win export orders.<p>Later, when the turbojet had won the race for the optimal propulsion system, many attempts were made to design variable-geometry aircraft (including the Mirage G series) and VTOL types (the SNECMA Coléoptère and Dassault Mirage IIIV), and there were even a few flying boat interceptor studies.<p>In the late sixties, in the pursuit of ever-higher speeds, Nord Aviation, Sud Aviation and primarily Avions Marcel Dassault also produced many Mach 3+ proposals.<p>Period drawings, promotional art, photographs of prototype aircraft, mock-ups, wind tunnel and promotional models are all combined to present, for the first time in the English language, a complete view of French military aircraft design from the Liberation of France to the late twentieth-century.