A Deep Dive into the Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace

[special ed]

My late friend saved money for several years so he could tour Europe's air museums one summer. He landed in Britain, rented a car and promptly, in three blocks hit a bus and taxi, which I predicted before he left the USA. The trip climaxed with the return on the Concorde.

 

[Gnomey]

Great shots Grant!

 

[nuuumannn]

Thanks again guys. Continuing here at Le Bourget, we enter by far the most intriguing galerie at the museum, the Hall des Prototypes and marvel at the unusual shapes within. The view as we first enter the hall.

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We start with France's first indigenous jet powered aircraft, the SNCASO (or Sud-Ouest) SO.6000 Triton. Perhaps the most peculiar of first attempts at a jet design, the Triton was allegedly conceived during the war while France was under German occupation, by aeronautical engineer Lucien Servanty in secret. Shortly after the end of the war the government, amid the rubble and despair that five years of enemy trespass had left behind but keen to maintain a prominent place in aeronautical development, issued a requirement to the ruins of the aircraft industry for a jet powered aircraft, of which five examples were to be built. An all-metal two-place cabin monoplane, the Triton's mid mounted mainplanes incorporated dihedral, which from some angles gives it the appearance of forward sweep and had a 160 sq ft wing area; all of the lifting surfaces look barely adequate. Its gas turbine powerplant was fed by two semi-circular elephant ear intakes forward of the wing root with boundary layer splitters inboard, with the engine mounted aft of the wing box, giving the jet a hump back appearance. Aesthetically it continued the French penchant for anomalous aeronautical appearance in aircraft design, and with its big shallow sloping windscreen, landing light in the nose and and sticky out intakes looks slightly comical from front on.

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Initially powered by a single 1,980lb thrust Junkers Jumo 004B turbojet engine as powering the Me 262 jet fighter, which required two of them, the Triton was terribly underpowered and was barley able to sustain momentum on its first flight on 11 November 1946. In the next three 'production' aircraft, a licence built 4,850lb thrust Rolls-Royce Nene was installed, which offered a vast improvement in performance. Capable of reaching speeds in excess of 590 mph, the Triton was no spring chicken - faster than France's first in-service jet fighter, the SE.530 Mistral, a licence built de Havilland Vampire by the same lot as those who built the Triton, but three years later, it was designed for trials only and no further development was carried out. This survivor is Triton No.3 F-WFKY and incorporates parts from No.5 in its reconstruction for the museum.

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In front of the jet is an example of its first powerplant, the Junkers Jumo 109 004B-2 gas turbine engine, sectioned for display. A few things worthy of note here for those interested; in the front cowl, the engine's APU, the Riedel starter motor, a little two-stroke piston engine can be seen, with its forward facing exhaust pipe visible. The pull handle to start it can be seen poking out the front of the intake centre body. The rectangular doors in the cowl top surface cover the fuel filler ports for the starter. Aft of the nose cowl can be seen the electrical generator and other auxiliary systems driven by the engine. Aft of that the eight stage axial compressor is visible, with the mechanical fuel control above it on its outer casing, which received inputs from the pilot and actuated fuel flow to the combustor cans via a simple governor. The horizontal drive shaft actuates the moveable cone within the exhaust outlet, known as the 'zwiebel' (onion), which varied thrust geometry exiting the rear cowl, which was a convergent duct to improve thrust output. Aft of the compressors can be seen the combustor cans and the single-stage turbine, with the zwiebel just visible within the rear cowl.

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During the first decade after the end of World War Two, having discovered the enormous potential of jet power, nations around the world launched a quest for speed in the air and France was no exception, with some notable early successes going to her best and brightest scientists, with more than a little Gallic flair, of course. This is the Leduc 010 ramjet, which began its gestation before World War Two, with a commission by the Ministry for Air to construct a flying test bed for René Lorin's 1908 patented aero-thermo-dynamic duct (athodyd) concept, issued in 1937. René Leduc designed the aircraft in 1938 and it was constructed by the Société des Ateliers d'Aviation Louis Bréguet or simply Breguet Aviation and by May 1940, amid enormous secrecy following the German occupation was almost complete, when work was halted on it to prevent it falling into enemy hands. Reconvened after the end of the war, in December 1945 the prototype was finally finished.

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Essentially a tapered tube with a conical centre body at the aircraft's intake housing the occupant, the Leduc 010 was otherwise of conventional layout. Wikipedia provides details about this example:

"Generally similar to the 010, it featured a Turbomeca Marbore I turbojet on each wingtip, to provide better control during landings. This first flew on 8 February 1951, but was converted back to 010 standards (and thereafter referred to as Leduc 010 n°03) a few months later after problems occurred, including misting of the pilot's windows, powerplant synchronization, and wing deflection caused by the turbojets. The engines were replaced by inert mass balances. This aircraft flew 83 test flights."

The exceptional cleanness of the design can be seen mounted as it was on top of its Sud-Est Languedoc carrier aircraft.

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More from wiki: "It could not take off unassisted (ramjets cannot produce thrust at zero airspeed and thus cannot move an aircraft from a standstill) and was therefore intended to be carried aloft by a parasite aircraft mother ship, such as the four-engined AAS 01A & -B German-origin designs [just to interject for a moment, this was of course the Heinkel He 274 built in France before the war's end and maintained in flying condition post-war] or the French-designed Sud-Est Languedoc four-engined airliners, and released at altitude. Following test flights of the AAS 01/Leduc 0.10 composite, independent unpowered gliding tests began in October 1947. After three such flights, the first powered flight from atop an AAS 01 mother ship was made on 21 April 1949 over Toulouse. Released in a shallow dive at an altitude of 3,050 m (10,010 ft), the engine was tested at half power for twelve minutes, propelling the aircraft to 680 km/h (420 mph). In subsequent tests, the 0.10 reached a top speed of Mach 0.85 and demonstrated the viability of the ramjet as an aviation powerplant, with a rate of climb of 40 m/s (7,900 ft/min) to 11,000 metres (36,000 ft), exceeding that of the best jet fighters of the time. Of the two 010s originally built, one was destroyed in a crash in 1951 and the other severely damaged in another crash the following year. Both pilots survived with serious injuries."

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Crouching in the Leduc's shadow is this rather neat little tailless jet, the Payen Pa 49 Katy. A bit more information from the usual source (I'll be relying on Wikipedia throughout this section of our tour because information in English on these fascinating projects is scarce):

"Roland Payen was a pioneer of tailless and delta winged aircraft, building two designs, a light aircraft and a fighter, before the second world war. The Pa 49 Katy was his first post-war design. The all wood Katy was a tailless aircraft, having no separate horizontal stabiliser. The wing leading edge was swept at about 55° but, unlike the classic delta with its straight trailing edge, the Katy's was swept at about 30° with each trailing edge carrying full span control surfaces, elevators inboard and ailerons outboard. At its root, the wing merged gently into the fuselage with small air intakes for the 1.47 kN (330 lbf) Turbomeca Palas engine built into the leading edge. The cockpit was placed just aft of the intakes and the long straight-edged fin, swept at about 75° and initially as wide as the cockpit, began immediately behind it, narrowing to a slightly swept trailing edge carrying a full depth rudder. Images recorded before the first flight show the Katy with a low bicycle undercarriage with wing tip skids but, by the time of the flight itself, this was replaced by a fixed, un-faired tricycle undercarriage."

"The first flight of what was now the Pa 49A took place on 22 January 1954 at Melun-Villaroche flown by Tony Ochsenbein, a comparatively inexperienced pilot, who had previously logged only 30 minutes on jets. Ten hours of manufacturer's testing was followed, in April 1954, by assessment at the Centre d'Essais en Vol (CEV), Brétigny-sur-Orge, the aerobatic ability of the Pa 49 was established. At the CEV it was fitted with a split rudder airbrake; the two surfaces of the rudder separated from just below the tip, driven via faired external links near the bottom, into a V at the hinge for braking, rotating together for yaw control. This airbrake was designed by Fléchair SA, a company founded by Payen. At the time of its appearance at the 12th Salon International d'Aeronautique at Paris, in 1957, the undercarriage legs were faired and the main wheels enclosed in spats and the aircraft renamed the Pa 49B. For a time the nosewheel was also spatted. There were plans for a version with a retractable undercarriage, but this did not come about."

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From the gimmicky little Katy we return to the heady realms of high performance jets and René Leduc's ultimate ramjet design, the 022 Mach 2 supersonic interceptor prototype. Following the encouraging results of testing carried out with the 010, a larger aircraft was constructed, the Leduc 021, which resembled a scaled up 010 and of which two were built. Between 1953 and 1956, the 021 prototypes investigated at great length the systems and procedures that an operational ramjet would require, with the intent of building a successful jet fighter using the technology. This was the Leduc 022, which was, from the outset to be capable of supersonic flight, although neither 021 was capable of breaching the sound barrier - Leduc was entering unfamiliar territory. Since his previous aircraft were not capable of getting themselves into the air, the new jet fighter had to be powered by a conventional gas turbine engine, in this case a 7,040lb thrust SNECMA Atar 101D-3, as well as the novel athodyd, sitting centrally within the outer fuselage and exhausting out the single rear orifice. Configured as its predecessors had been, a tapered cylinder, within which the pilot sat in the intake centre cone behind a massive perspex windshield cone, the 022 was significantly larger than Leduc's previous designs, but with conventional tricycle undercarriage and swept back wings. In this image, and based on what we know about the growing sophistication of combat aircraft of the time, it is plain to see that the decidedly unconventional 022 was not a practicable proposition.

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First flying on 26 December 1956 on gas turbine power alone, the 022 finally fired its barbeque in the back on 18 May 1957 during its 34th flight. During its extensive flight testing regime, over a total of 114 flights, the 022 inexplicably demonstrated that it was not capable of exceeding the speed of sound, which is kind'a essential for a supersonic interceptor, especially a Mach 2 one. Earlier that decade, NACA scientist Richard Whitcomb had formulated the area rule principle of designing a high speed aircraft's airframe in such a way as to reduce transonic drag. Leduc's flying barrels did not have area rule applied to them by nature of their unique powerplant, and without it, the jets' tubular shape produced excessive drag when approaching transonic speeds. Finally, following the unveiling of a close rival's more conventional fighter interceptor project and subsequent government interest in its potential, the Leduc 022 programme was halted at the end of 1957. This is the only example built of this remarkably complex but ultimately dead-end jet fighter. Note how the rather flimsy looking main gear legs tuck into the wing root.

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...And this is the prototype of the machine that brought about the end of Leduc's dreams of a ramjet fighter, the very plain by comparison, yet supremely successful Mirage III. Hinted at earlier on in this piece, Marcel Dassault's Mirage family, encompassing a wide variety of airframe designs and applications under the same name, despite many of them bearing only superficial design cues to the original namesake, began with the Mirage III and this was the first example of ten pre-production Mirage III As. Earlier delta winged MD.550 prototypes were named Mystere after the manufacturer's successful jet fighter predecessor, then receiving the uninspiring 'Delta', before Dassault settled on Mirage. First flying on 12 May 1958, this aircraft, 01, became the first French aircraft to exceed Mach 2 five months later and as the first production example cemented the design of the production variants, of which some 1,422 examples (Mirage III and V) were built.

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The broad history of the Mirage family is lengthy and fulsome and I certainly couldn't do it justice here, and therefore I won't. Despite being more than 60 years old in design, the Mirage is still a striking thing to this day.

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More to come from the Prototype Hall.

 

[Airframes]

Great stuff Grant. Some amazing machines there.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Crimea_River]

Fascinating. "Anomalous aeronautical appearance " is a very charitable description!

 

[Graeme]

we enter by far the most intriguing galerie at the museum

Totally agree. Many thanks for the photos and insights.

 

[Gnomey]

Lovely shots Grant!

 

[nuuumannn]

Back in Les Prototypes galerie, we begin where we left off, with the promise of high speed and the Mirage III. Prior to Marcel Dassault's delta winged jet's enormous success, the quest for a Mach 2 supersonic fighter was being pursued by a few different manufacturers in France, to a requirement issued in 1953. We looked at Leduc's ramjets and the the folly they turned out to be, but they weren't the only ramjets being tested at the time. As we know, ramjets require another means to start from a stand still and Leduc, in his 022 interceptor buried a conventional jet engine within the core of the athodyd. The engineers at Société Française d'Etude et de Construction de Matériel Aéronautiques Spéciaux or SFECMAS, while envisioning a high speed interceptor came to the same conclusion, but were a little more cautious in their approach; unlike Leduc however, they were going to build a test bed prototype before launching into a full blown interceptor. The result was the 1500 Guépard (Cheetah). At the time, SFECMAS was merged with SNCAN to form Nord Aviation and the Cheetah became the mythical Griffon. As per Leduc's flying barrel, the Griffon was similarly shaped, but with a low set intake with a protruding nose section mounted above it. Buried within the fuselage was a combined turbojet-ramjet arrangement, which would enable high speed operations as well as cater to conventional requirements. First flying on 20 September 1955 piloted by the Great Andre Turcat, the first Griffon was powered by a single SNECMA Atar 101 turbojet (which, for those Luftwaffe aficionados among you was based on the BMW 103-003 that powered the He 162 and Ar 234) but devoid of the functioning athodyd, thus proving the aerodynamics of the design.

The remarkable visage of the Griffon is revealed in this view from an elevated position. note that compared to the monstrosity that was the Leduc 022 to the right, the Griffon is relatively small and in size is comparable to the Mirage III behind it.

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Wiki goes into detail about this particular example;

"On 23 January 1957, the Griffon II performed its first flight. During April 1957, all flying of the Griffon I was ceased in favour of focusing on the ramjet-equipped Griffon II. During a high speed test flight conducted in 1958, the Griffon II successfully attained a peak speed of Mach 2.19 (2,330 km/h or 1,450 mph) while being piloted by Turcat. This milestone was viewed as having proved the basic design of the aircraft to be sound. However, the flight test programme had revealed several technical difficulties were present in the aircraft, including concerns regarding kinetically-generated heat; the thermal issues were exacerbated by a lack of temperature-resistant materials, such as Inconel or titanium, for portions of the airframe that encountered the highest temperatures. The ramjet was determined to have functioned well when the aircraft was flown at high speeds, but exhibited instability while flying at medium speeds."

Following the results of the Griffon's test regime, the 'Super Griffon' promised to rectify the issues encountered, but, as we know, the more conventional and less technically ambitious Mirage III pipped the ramjet concept to the post. The Griffon II from the rear; note the enormous exhaust orifice and landing parachute in its fairing on the fin. We'll be looking at a third entry in the supersonic interceptor competition in our next installment.

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We now look at another indulgent aeronautical project that numerous manufacturers researched during the 50s and beyond - the vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft. Staying with our engine manufacturer friends at Atar, which incidentally stands for Atelier technique aéronautique de Rickenbach, which was a group of German scientists that were pooled together in 1946 in the former Dornier factory at Rickenbach in Baden-Württemberg, but working for the French. These guys were led by notable designer Hermann Oestrich, who, along with fellow BMW engineers was responsible for the BMW 003 and had designed a more advanced variant, which became the Atar 101, under French agreement and built by SNECMA. Essentially an Atar 101 engine mounted vertically in a tubular casing and erected on a four-poster undercarriage framework, the Atar Volant was a vertical lift test bed family, of which three were built. The first was piloted by remote, but the second, seen here had an ejection seat, instrumentation and controls for the pilot (balls-of-steel were apparently a requirement). Producing 6,200lbs thrust, the manned Atar Volant C.400 P.2 first flew attached to a gantry in April 1957, before its first untethered flight on 14 May flown by August Morel, who was to be injured testing a more advanced example of the technology. It made a total 0f 123 tethered and free flights, including a public display at the Paris Airshow.

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Following the C.400s was the SNECMA C.450 Coléoptère, which was intended as a test bed for a vertical lift concept incorporating an annular circular wing invented by Austrian Helmut von Zborovski, which, he theorised could provide any so equipped aircraft with a ramjet housing that could accelerate any aircraft to supersonic speeds (again with the ramjet). (Coléoptère, incidentally means "beetle" in French, descended from Greek for "sheathed wing"). This rather long shot concept was trialled and revealed from our usual source;

"During early 1958, the completed first prototype arrived at Melun Villaroche Aerodrome ahead of testing. The eye-catching design of the Coléoptère rapidly made waves in the public conscious, even intentionally; author Jeremy Davis observed that the aircraft had even influenced intentional efforts, having allegedly motived the United States Navy to contract American helicopter manufacturer Kaman Aircraft to design its own annular-wing vehicle, nicknamed the Flying Barrel. In December 1958, the Coléoptère first left the ground under its own power, albeit while attached to a gantry; Morel was at the aircraft's controls. Several challenging flight characteristics were observed, such as the tendency for the aircraft to slowly spin on its axis while in a vertical hover; Morel also noted that the vertical speed indicator was unrealistic and that the controls were incapable of steering the aircraft with precision while performing the critical landing phase. Dead-stick landings were deemed to be an impossibility."

"Morel conducted a total of eight successful flights, attaining a recorded maximum altitude of 800 m (2,625 ft). One of these flights involved a display of the aircraft's hover performance before an assembled public audience. The ninth flight, on 25 July 1959, was planned to make limited moves towards entering horizontal flight; however, hindered by insufficient instrumentation and a lack of visual benchmarks, the aircraft became too inclined and too slow to maintain its altitude. Morel was unable to regain control amid a series of wild oscillations, opting to activate the ejection seat to escape the descending aircraft at only 150 m (492 ft). He survived but was badly injured, while the aircraft itself was destroyed. While plans for a second prototype had been mooted at one stage, such ambitions ultimately never received the funding to proceed."

At least the wind tunnel model looks nice.

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Our next ascent into VTOL eccentricity is the Sud Aviation/Aérospatiale SA-610 Ludion (Cadet). Wiki again;

"It consisted of little more than a chair, behind which were mounted two downward-pointing augmented rocket engines with control provided by thrust vectoring. The Ludion was intended to carry its pilot and 30 kg (66 lb) of equipment up to 700 m (2,300 ft) at an altitude of up to 200 m (600 ft). The unusual powerplant consisted of a monofuel de-composition chamber fed with pressurised isopropyl nitrate (AVPIN), ignited by a catalyst. The high pressure gasses produced in the de-composition chamber were fed to two augmentor tubes, built by Bertin Technologies, either side of the pilots seat, angled slightly outwards. As the gasses entered the augmentor tubes through rocket nozzles, thrust was augmented by inducing airflow through the ducts which acted as aero-thermo-dynamic ducts, due to the heat and kinetic energy added to the flow through the ducts, and the carefully shaped exhaust nozzles."

Apparently the British provided information on the use of Avpin as a hypergolic fuel, after research by the Rocket Propulsion Establishment at Westcott with German T-stoff and C-stoff propellants from the Walther Werke in Hamburg. 'Nuff said...

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Remaining with the en-vogue obsession of vertical take-off of the era, the next airframe of note is from Dassault's hand, the Mirage III V - a practical attempt at a VTOL combat aircraft built to a military specification. In August 1961, NATO released an updated revision of its VTOL strike fighter requirement, NATO Basic Military Requirement 3 (NBMR-3). Specifications called for a supersonic V/STOL strike fighter with a combat radius of 460 kilometres (250 nmi). Cruise speed was to be Mach 0.92, with a dash speed of Mach 1.5. The aircraft, with a 910-kilogram (2,000 lb) payload, had to be able to clear a 15-metre (50 ft) obstacle following a 150-metre (500 ft) takeoff roll. Victory in this competition was viewed being of a high importance at the time as it was seem as being potentially "the first real NATO combat aircraft" (thanks wiki). The other significant entry into NBMR-3 was the Hawker Siddeley P.1154, which was to be a supersonic VTOL jet named 'Harrier' incorporating a novel single powerplant with four vectored thrust nozzles. The supersonic variant of the basic Bristol Siddeley Pegasus engine was to incorporate what was called plenum chamber burning (PCB) to achieve supersonic thrust, which was a major contributor behind the programme's downfall (regulating temperature and thrust output in two different thrust chambers simultaneously became something for the 'too hard basket', apparently). Nonetheless, without making this a post about the P.1154, which could easily fill a book, the Dassault team opted for separate jet-lift engines, which again the British had tested with the Short SC.1, eight Roll-Royce RB.162 vertically mounted jet-lift engines, with deflectors that could vector the thrust in flight.

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A truly international effort, Dassault received much assistance for the Mirage III V from Britain - its predecessor the Balzac was powered by a Bristol Orpheus engine with R-R RB.108 jet lift engines - and its primary engine came from the United States. This was the Pratt & Whitney JT10A low bypass turbofan, which was to power the cancelled Douglas F6D Missileer, but went on as the TF30 to power the General Dynamics F-111. Although propelling the Mirage III V to supersonic speeds, the second prototype achieved Mach 2 in September 1966, the jet never achieved vertical take off and supersonic speed in the same flight. Following the loss of the second prototype and its pilot in November 1966, Dassault pulled the plug on the programme, and, by this stage the P.1154 had been declared the winning submission to the NATO tender, which further dissuaded any official interest in the jet. Technologically simpler than the P.1154, the Mirage III V looked to be a very real possibility for a practical supersonic VTOL combat aircraft, but the impracticalities of carrying around extra engines and the extra fuel to feed them, thus consuming useable load carrying capability meant the death knell of many VTOL projects of the time. Only the Soviet Yak-38 entered service with separate lift engines, supplanted by a vectored thrust main engine, but the P.1154's direct descendent, via the P.1127 and Kestrel, the Harrier was a far greater success, as we know.

Missing its American engine, the Mirage III V prototype is one of a number of VTOL projects from the period with little practical result that litter aviation museums around the world.

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Finally for today, we stay with Dassault and take a look at another global aviation trend that appeared around about the same time as the VTOL revolution became consigned to the scrap heap (with the exception of the aforementioned Harrier and Yak-38, of course, which, strictly speaking were more accurately STOVL, than VTOL); variable geometry wings. It is interesting to note that a response to a French government requirement for a joint navy and air force supersonic variable geometry aircraft issued in 1964, the Mirage G aircraft were based on Dassault's Mirage F2, which was powered by the Mirage III V's US engine, the TF30 manufactured under licence by SNECMA. This particular aircraft was designed as a sophisticated low altitude strike aircraft, but was rejected in favour of Dassault's low tech version, the Mirage F1. Fitting variable sweep wings to the F2's fuselage, the wings were swept at 22 degrees when fully forward and 70 degrees when fully aft and featured full-span double-slotted trailing edge flaps and two-position leading edge flaps. In this view of the Mirage G8 01 prototype, its leading edge and trailing edge surfaces are deployed and the wing is in forward sweep.

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Initially, the concepts for the Mirage G family came out of France's dissatisfaction for the joint Anglo-French Variable Geometry (AFVG) programme, which, having France withdraw led Britain to look for new suitors, rather like a dating game, which they did in the form of Germany and Italy, which, combined created Panavia and the excellent Tornado multi-role combat aircraft. I guess the success of Tornado and the lack of a French equivalent could be considered payback for Dassault's comments about the Mirage success eluding the British! Designed as prototypes for a dual service aircraft, the G8s were intended on carrying a full suite of radar and nav-attack systems, but it all came to nought and a French VG aircraft never entered service, despite the Mirage G's obvious potential. This wasn't the end of it though - it was to have influence outside France, somewhat implausibly in the United States, as wiki attests to;

"In the late 1960s, the US manufacturer Ling-Temco-Vought (LTV) was seeking technical data on variable-geometry wings, within the framework of a bid for the US Navy's VFX carrier fighter contract. As a result of the publicity gained by the Mirage G, LTV sought the assistance of Dassault, as well as General Dynamics, which had secured a contract with the USAF for a variable geometry fighter-bomber/attack aircraft, the F-111A. Two agreements were signed by Dassault and LTV in 1968: one for general cooperation and the other specifically in regard to variable-geometry wings. This resulted in two LTV designs, the Vought V-505 and V-507, as well as construction of a full-scale, non-flying mockup of the second design. There were two competing bids, both with variable geometry: the McDonnell F-4(FVS), which was a variant of the Phantom II, and the Grumman 303. The latter was successful and was developed into the F-14. However, during its development, Grumman approached LTV for details of the V-507, including some of the same technical solutions devised for the Mirage G."

In this view the left hand wing is at full rearward sweep. That's a Bristol Hercules incongruously parked under its wingtip.

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Coming up, more Prototypes.

 

[DBII]

Nice trip. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Snautzer01]

Cant wait for the next bit.

 

[Crimea_River]

Great stuff Grant.

 

[Gnomey]

Great shots Grant!

 

[nuuumannn]

Thanks again for following along. This just in. Whilst browsing Youtube I spotted this, on one of the subjects I posted about here! The Coléoptère tail sitter, with a clip of the Atar Volant hovering as well. This clip is concise and gives a good run down of the project, with cool animation, too.

A Plane Without Wings: The Story of The C.450 Coléoptère - YouTube

 

[Crimea_River]

Interesting. It reminds me of one of the paper airplane styles that I used to make in university.

 

[nuuumannn]

So, with Christmas and all that indulgence out of the way (he says while wiping chocolate from around his maw), it's time to reacquaint ourselves with more from Le Bourget. We continue with the SNCASO SO.9000 Trident, a mixed propulsion interceptor built to the same specification that was released by the French government for an indigenous supersonic interceptor to which the wacky ramjet designs we've already examined were built to. The product of research by engineer Lucien Servanty, who was responsible for France's first jet powered aircraft, the Triton, see above, the Trident, evolved from Servanty's studies for a shoulder wing supersonic interceptor incorporating dual jet and rocket propulsion - necessary, since the early jet engines had such low power outputs, the incorporation of a rocket engine would enable the jet to accelerate to supersonic speed. The rocket engine selected was developed by Société d'Études pour la Propulsion par Réaction (SEPR) and was based on that created for the cancelled Matra M.04 missile, with furaline - or phenylfuran-dihydro-imidazole alcohol mixture as its fuel and nitric acid as its oxidiser, which were hypergolic. This caused issues as the nitric acid, being highly corrosive, ate away at the engine components and airframe! Owing to the effects of rocket engines not being fully understood, a Sud-Ouest SO.6020 Espadon was fitted with a SEPR 25 rocket engine and first flying in June 1952 it became the first European aircraft to go supersonic.

A ground breaking design, powered by a single three-chamber SEPR 481 rocket motor and two 880 lb thrust Turbomeca Marboré II turbojets the Trident incorporated a number of novel concepts on its first flight on 2 March 1953. these include the entire nose could be jettisoned to prevent the pilot from suffering injury during ejection at high speed, and the tail surfaces were all moveable and the hori stabs were the primary roll control surfaces in use at supersonic speed, while conventional ailerons on the wings provided this below transonic speeds. This is Trident 01 and the join for the detachable nose section can be seen aft of the heavily framed canopy.

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The brief trials career of the Trident was, as with most exotic aircraft of the day, mixed, but the type demonstrated exceptional speed and achieved a few speed records for the time. From wiki, as usual.

"On 2 March 1953, the first prototype Trident I conducted the type's maiden flight; flown by test pilot Jacques Guignard, the aircraft used the entire length of the runway to get airborne, being powered only by its turbojet engines. It was initially flown without any rocket engine installed, relying solely upon its turbojet engines instead. According to aviation author Bill Gunston, the early test flights of the SO.9000 were 'hairy' prior to the installation of the rocket motor, which first occurred during September 1954. On 1 September 1953, during the first flight of the second Trident I prototype, flown by Guignard, the aircraft crashed after struggling to gain altitude after takeoff and colliding with an electricity pylon, resulting in its loss and Guignard sustaining severe injuries.

On 16 January 1954, test flights using the remaining Trident I prototype were resumed, flown by test pilot Charles Goujon. Partially in response to the loss of the second Trident I due to a lack of engine power, it was decided to adopt new turbojet engines in the form of the more powerful Dassault MD.30 Viper, a license-produced version of the British Armstrong Siddeley Viper engine, which were capable of producing 7.34 kN (1,654 lbf) thrust each, nearly double the thrust of the original engines. During March 1955, the first Trident I prototype performed its first flight following its refitting with the Viper engines. Powered by these engines, the aircraft soon proved its ability to exceed Mach 1 during a shallow dive even without the added thrust of the rocket motor. In April 1956, it was decided to end flight testing with the sole remaining Trident I. During the 18-month-long flight test programme, the Trident I had completed over 100 flights, having eventually reached a maximum recorded speed of Mach 1.8 and a peak altitude of 20,000 metres (65,000 ft). A total of 24 of these flights had been flown using the rocket engine."

As a result of its excellent performance, including time-to-height and altitude records; its officially-observed record-breaking altitude of 24,300 metres (79,700 ft) was achieved during a flight in May 1957, flown by test pilot Roger Carpentier, the French air force were keen on production and an order for 10 pre production airframes was placed, but bizarrely, events in the UK brought the programme to an end. The release of Duncan Sandys' 1957 Defence White Paper caused ripples that affected French military planning as well, particularly in the proposal to focus on an all-missile defence system and the cancellation of high speed manned interceptors, and with that, the excellent little Trident faded into history.

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Next, one of the most successful European jet aircraft prior to the excellent Mirage III, again from the Dassault stable, the transonic MD.454 Mystère IV, of which this is the prototype. Powered by a Rolls-Royce RB.44 Tay engine, an enlarged Nene specially constructed at the request of Pratt & Whitney, who put it into production as the J48, the Mystère IVA was a derivative design of the earlier Mystère I and II fighter bomber, but was completely redesigned to enable operation at transonic speeds. A relatively successful design, the Mystère IV saw export success with Israel, which cancelled its order for Mystère IIs in favour of the later jet, and India - both of whom's Mystères saw combat in their respective regions. We'll see an Armee de L'Air Mystère IV on display soon enough.

Musee de l'Air 78

First flying on 28 September 1952, as mentioned earlier, this aircraft was powered by a 7,710 lb thrust Roll-Royce Tay engine, as was the first 50 examples built, after which the type was powered by the licence built 7,720 lb thrust Hispano Suiza Verdon 350 engine. On 17 January 1953, piloted by Constantin Rozanoff, this particular aircraft exceeded the speed of sound in a dive on its 34th flight, becoming the first French fighter jet to achieve that milestone. As a result, a commemorative smashing of the wall artwork was added to the aircraft's nose, as seen here aft of the intake.

Musee de l'Air 79

The bluff nose of the Mystère contrasts with the pointy end of the Trident...

Musee de l'Air 81

Our next brush with exoticism is the Hirsch-MAéRC H.100 research aircraft. Wiki tells us a bit about it.

"René Hirsch had been working on aerodynamic methods that would stabilize an aircraft meeting a gust since 1936 and had set up a company to this end, Moyens aérodynamiques de regulation et de contrôle (MAéRC) Making its first flight on 15 June 1954, the H.100 incorporated the results of his research but was MAéRC's only aircraft. Control systems apart, the H.100 was a fairly conventional twin engine, wooden aircraft, with a cantilever low wing of trapezoidal plan. The fuselage was strikingly clean aerodynamically, with only gradual changes of cross-section from nose to tail. Behind the pilot's transparency there were three starboard and two port side windows. The horizontal surfaces, mounted on top of the fuselage, had both a high aspect ratio and marked dihedral. Originally the vertical tail was rounded and quite small but during development a large, straight tapered ventral fin was added. The H.100 had a tall, rearward retracting tricycle undercarriage. The main legs retracted into extensions of the engine fairings beyond the wing trailing edge."

"Little detail about the stabilization system is recorded. It is known that the horizontal tail surfaces were hinged to allow the dihedral to change and that such motions were coupled to lift-changing flaps. Together, these stabilized pitch. The wing tips could rotate to control roll. The system was pneumatically powered and could be turned on and off in flight to test its efficiency. On its first flight and for early tests, the H.100 was powered by two 71 kW (95 hp) Régnier 4EO four cylinder inverted air-cooled engines. The aircraft was damaged in a take-off accident on 3 September 1955 and during a prolonged rebuild the Régniers were replaced with much more powerful 127 kW (170 hp) Lycoming O-360 flat-four engines. It flew with these engines in 1962. Test flights reportedly showed satisfactory results but, with investment lacking, nothing further resulted. The H.100 made its last flight on 16 June 1971, having flown for a total of 130 hours."

Donated to the museum in 1971, the Hirsch H.100 is quite an attractive wee machine -and it is small.

Musee de l'Air 83

Behind the Hirsch is a wind tunnel model of a jet project that I'm having difficulty identifying - should have taken a photo of the display board. Any clues will be useful. Here it is again. I'll get back to y'all with more soon.

Musee de l'Air 82

Our last aircraft within the fabulous Hall Les Prototypes is the SNCASE SE.3210 Super Frelon helicopter. Following the poor showing of the SE.3200 Frelon, which was described as such in the following terms by SNCASE design engineer René Mouille; "Le Frelon showed us precisely what not to do on a helicopter", in 1960 work was begun on its successor the Super Frelon, of which, this one, F-ZWWE was the first example, which first flew on 7 December 1962. Taking part in aerial trials with carrying the Excocet anti-ship missile in 1973, a year later it was donated to the museum on 14 March 1974. A record breaking aircraft, here is some information about its career from French wiki:

"As early as May 1963, the results obtained during the flight tests prompted the 01 to be modified to address helicopter speed records. With the help of Marcel Riffard, designer of the famous Caudron racing aircraft, the aim was to refine the aircraft: the rivet heads were covered with adhesive, the dismantled door handles, the bulging windows replaced by flat windows, the rear stall cleared under a fairing, the landing gear replaced by undamped pads, and the main rotor hub equipped with hemispheric fairing. The prototype was lightened to the maximum, but telemetry instruments were added to monitor the rotors from the ground. The aircraft was entrusted to Jean Boulet and Roland Coffignot, assisted by Joseph Turchini and the first attempt took place over the plain of The Crau, north of the Camargue, on July 18, 1963. On July 19, 1963, the record on base of 3 km was raised to 341.23 km/h above the base of Istres. On July 23 1963, the record 15/25 km held by the Sikorsky SH-34 since February 1962 increased from 320.39 to 350.47 km/h and on the same day the record over 100 km closed circuit was smashed: 334.28 km/h."

Musee de l'Air 84

We finish off with some views from the balcony of some of the aircraft we have looked at previously.

Musee de l'Air 86

Musee de l'Air 87

Next, combat aircraft of the Armee de l'Air in le Hall de la Cocarde.

 

[FalkeEins]

excellent 'walk-around' of the exhibits at Le Bourget, thanks Grant. Re your comment in post #23 about "the ruins of the French aircraft industry " due to German occupation.
This notion is a bit of a myth that the French have 'discreetly' encouraged post-war in an attempt to draw a veil over their extensive collaboration in the field of aviation with the Germans.

Following the defeat and subsequent armistice in June 1940 the Vichy French authorities had very quickly opened negotiations with their new German masters. They offered to produce spares for German aircraft manufacturers and establish overhaul and repair facilities for aircraft operating from French territory. A deliberate ploy to keep aircraft manufacture going but it was one that allowed German industry to produce more fighters and more bombers, while the French built transport and training types, for example, over 700 Caudron Goelands delivered for the Luftwaffe (IIRC) . The Vichy Government thereafter concluded the so-called Wiesbaden Agreement with the Reich to bring the French aircraft industry fully into alignment with German production. Production of certain types, such as the Messerschmitt Bf.108, Siebel Si.204 and Fiesler Fi.156 Storch was transferred wholesale to France and other types were developed exclusively in France (Arados, Heinkels). There were huge stocks of (German) equipment used post-war - German life-jackets were still being used in the mid-1950s in French naval aircraft..and as pointed out many French (proto)types that flew in the post-war period had been conceived during the war..

 

[nuuumannn]

This notion is a bit of a myth that the French have 'discreetly' encouraged post-war in an attempt to draw a veil over their extensive collaboration in the field of aviation with the Germans.

Thanks for the information - you mean to say the French, gulp, "collaborated"? Well, no surprise really, what option did they have. I believe that there were a number of people that felt at the time that they were better served under their new masters than under the inefficient government they had beforehand. Nevertheless, the German retention of production lines meant that France did have a stable industry from which to build.

 

[nuuumannn]

To continue with the thread, the wind tunnel model I wasn't sure about has been identified for me (thanks Secret Projects forum) as a Breguet 1001 Taon, which was a 1950s design for a single seat strike aircraft to a joint NATO strike fighter proposal, which was in competition with the Fiat G-91, which was selected as the 'winner', although only the Germans, Italians and Portuguese used it. Only two Taons were built - the name is French for gadfly, but is also an anagram of NATO, or French OTAN. Powered by a Bristol Orpheus turbojet, the Taon did achieve a couple of notable records, it set an international speed record for a 1,000 km (620 mi) closed circuit with a speed of 1,046.65 km/h (650.36 mph) at 7,620 m (25,000 ft) on 25 April 1958. On 23 July, it broke the record again at a speed of 1,075 km/h (667.98 mph). Here's the model again.

Musee de l'Air 82

 

[Wurger]