Dassault Aviation
5 types · 0 airframes
Pre-1950 Narrative
Narrative coming soon.
Aircraft Types
Dassault Étendard IV
The Dassault Étendard IV was a French carrier-borne strike fighter, the Aéronautique Navale's first supersonic fighter. It was built in two versions, 69 Étendard IVM strike aircraft and 21 Étendard IVP reconnaissance aircraft, delivered between 1961 and 1965, and served aboard the carriers Clemenceau and Foch from 1962. The strike version retired in 1991, while the reconnaissance version, which flew the type's combat missions over Lebanon, Bosnia and Kosovo, remained in service until 2000. The design formed the basis of the Super Étendard.
Dassault Mirage III
The Mirage III is a French tailless-delta fighter designed by Dassault Aviation in the 1950s. The first Western European combat aircraft to exceed Mach 2 in level flight, it was built in large numbers for France and for export, fought in the Middle East and the South Atlantic among other places, and remains in Pakistani service in upgraded form long after most operators retired it.
Dassault Mystère IV
The Mystère IV was France's first transonic fighter-bomber: a new design behind its resemblance to the Mystère II, with a thinner, more sharply swept wing, flown first on 28 September 1952. The United States funded 225 aircraft for the French Air Force, most production aircraft were bought under an offshore procurement contract, and 411 were built in all. Exported to Israel and India, it fought at Suez in 1956, in the Six-Day War of 1967 and in India's wars of 1965 and 1971, and it stayed in French service into the 1980s. Several examples survive in museums.
Dassault Ouragan
The Dassault M.D.450 Ouragan was France's first production jet fighter, a straight-wing fighter-bomber designed by Dassault Aviation as a private venture and first flown in 1949. It served briefly at the front line in France, was bought new by India as the Toofani, fought with Israel in 1956 and 1967, and ended its career with El Salvador in the 1980s.
Dassault Super Mystère B.2
The Super Mystère B.2 was a single-seat supersonic fighter-bomber built by Dassault Aviation, the final development of the line that began with the Ouragan and ran through the Mystère family. A thin wing swept at 45° and an afterburning SNECMA Atar let it exceed the speed of sound in level flight, making it Western Europe's first supersonic aircraft to enter mass production. Dassault built 180 production aircraft. It served with the French Air Force from 1958 to 1977, fought in Israeli hands in the Six-Day and Yom Kippur wars — later re-engined there as the IAI Sa'ar — and finished its service career with Honduras in 1996.