Aviation Naval Warfare Land Systems Small Arms By Flag By Year By Tag

Dassault Super Mystere

1957 COLD WAR SIX DAY WAR

History

The Dassault "Super Mystic" became the ultimate form of the single-seat swept-wing jet fighter-bomber family of French origin, and the first Western European fighter to exceed Mach 1.0 in level flight. Super Mystere is an extension of the earlier Mystere IV (detailed elsewhere on this page), itself an evolution of the Mystere model and Dassault Ouragan ("Hurricane") even before it.

The new aircraft did not live up to the production success of the Dassault Mystere IV series, but was a long-time French Air Force performer and later saw action in both Israel and Honduras.

Engineers used this time to make several additional changes to their fighter design, giving the Super Mystere a larger wing sweep (45 degrees) to accommodate the high-speed flight envelope. The chords of the main aircraft were also reduced, which in turn reduced frontal drag and aided aerodynamics. The engine of choice is a locally produced SNECMA Atar 101G-2 turbojet, which provides afterburner capability to increase speed for short periods of time.

This, along with the new wings, allows the fighter to exceed the speed of sound in level flight, unlike previous Mysteres that required a dive to achieve the same performance.

The Super Mystere took the form of the prototype B.1 (SMB.2), which first flew on March 2, 1955. After testing five pre-production aircraft (first flight 26 February 1957), which entered service as early as 1957, these forms received SNECMA Atar 101G series turbojets.

From 1956 to 1959, approximately 180 Super Mysteries were built.

The production model has a person sitting behind the nose-mounted air intakes and under a light framed canopy. It has an overall length of 46.3 feet, a wingspan of 34.5 feet and a height of 15 feet. Curb weight is 14,100 lbs and maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) is 22,000 lbs.

The SNECMA Atar 101G-2 provides 7,500 pounds of dry thrust and up to 9,920 pounds of afterburner thrust (that is, pumping raw fuel into the exhaust for a quick burst).

Performance includes a top speed of 745 miles per hour (approximately Mach 1.12) and a combat range of up to 540 miles (730 miles of ferry range). Service capped at 56,000 feet and climbed at an impressive 18,000 feet per minute.

Equipped with 2 x 30mm DEFA 552 machine guns, each gun can fire 150 rounds. The aircraft can carry 2 Matra rocket pods, each containing 18 SNEB 68mm rockets. Early airframes included a retractable 35 68mm ventral rocket pack, but production was soon discontinued.

The deployment also includes air-to-air missile support (including the American AIM-9 Sidewinder). There are a total of four hardpoints that can transport conventional bombs, missiles, mission pods and fuel tanks (up to 5,000 lbs).

Contemporaries of the Super Mystere include the North American F-100 Super Sabre and Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19 Farmer jet fighters (both detailed elsewhere on this page).

The French Air Force used the Super Mystere for 20 years before finally abandoning it in 1977. Part of the inventory was then sold to Israel, which received 36 shipments in 1958 and fought in 1967.

In the Six Day War" and the subsequent "Yom Kippur War" in 1973, they excelled - including against enemy MiG-19 fighter jets. In true Israeli fashion, part of the fleet fielded American Pratt & Whitney J52-P-8A 9,300 lb. Turbojets help to change performance to a certain extent, these engines fly under the name IAI Sa'ar

In 1976, at least 12 Israeli stocks were sold again to the Honduran Air Force, where they ended their days. In 1979, subsequent batches received four more fighter-bombers, and the fleet was enraged in a border battle with neighboring Nicaragua.

The team remained in service until the early to mid-1990s, when the Honduran Air Force was upgrading to the American Northrop F-5 Tiger/Freedom fighter family.

Dassault completed at least two Super Mysteres in or around 1958 under the B.4 with SNECMA Atar 9B afterburning turbojets with 13,227 lbs of thrust and improved 48 wing main aircraft degrees combined with sweeping. This work did not lead to mass adoption or mass production as the Dassault Mirage III caught on in Dassault Aviation's marketing.