North American and Republic vs Dassault - 50's Jets

[hyair]

In the early 50's two main American companies ruled the Jet fighter market - North American with the Sabre series and Republic with the F-84 series. Later the Super Sabre was evolved and was the first american fighter to break the sound barrier in a level flight.
During this period in France a small man named Marcel Bloch changed his family name to
Dassault and after WW2 founded a company that produced Jets for the French airforce .
Since France always wanted freedom with her arsenal of weapons it was an almost perfect
match. The first Jet fighter of Dassault was the Ouragan that rivaled the straight wing F-84
Thunderjet series. Later the mystere IIC and mystere IV rivaled the sabre family. Later the
super mystere rivaled the super sabre. Dassult was always in a lag of 2 years in compare
to the American companies named above but in his way he took the main essentials of the
American designs and adapted them to the French needs with excellent results !!!
If we understand that during WW2 the French aviation industry was almost
paralysed we will realise how big was this achievement.
In the next chapters I will make a deeper compareations between the different Jets.

I attach here images of the planes involed all in 1:48 scale.

Yair

[hyair]

By the time the F-84 Thunderjet was already in service the Ouragan only was drawn on the design board. The Thunderjet entered service in 1948 while the Ouragan only in 1952.
In terms of design both planes are looking very similar - round fuselage with circular air
intake with splitter in the front that supplied the amount of air needed for the AFT located
engine. Both types had manual cables for moving the control surfaces - something that required more force from the pilots when there was a need to pull the stick from a dive for
instance. For every Ouragan that was built some 20 Thunderjets were built ( 350 vs 7000).
In the next chapter a performance comparison of the two will be given.

In the images below the f-84f Thunderstrike of the IAFM model is compared with
repainted IAFM Ouragan - both in 1:48 scale.

Yair

[Don Boose]

Thanks for the background info and the images of your excellent models. These aircraft were flying when I was in high school in the 50s, and they still look good to me.

Don

[hyair]

Thanks Don .
In the mid 60's I was in elementary school. and it was the French era of the IAF. There were many
french planes in the sky -Ouragan ,Mystere IV ,Super Mystere, Vautour, Mirage IIIC, Fuga Magister , Aluate and Super Perlon helicopters and Nord troops carrier !!!

Yair

[hyair]

The two had many things in common :
Both carried fuel tanks at the wing edges.
Both had 4 20 mm guns.
Both had mechanic controls without hydraulic assistance.
Both had top speed of around 0.8 mach or 950-1000 KPH.
Both had engines of between 5200-5600 lb thrust.
Both had circular intakes for air duct supply to the engines at the rear.
Both had first generation ejection seats.
Both had simple but strong body frame.
Both fought in actual wars - the Thunderjet in Korea and the Ouragan in
1956 and 1967 wars with the IAF and Indo -Pakistani war in 1965.
The Ouragan had better climb rate of 7400 vs 3700 feet per minute and required shorter take off roll than the Thunderjet.
Half of the Thunderjets built (7200) were sold to NATO countries.
The Ouragan was sold to Israel and India in much smaller numbers ( 75/100).
The service of the Thunderjet was short with USAF where it served until 1957 and later with the ANG till 1970 , but the Ouragan served till 1973 in the IAF and 1980 with the French airforce.

Yair

[Jan Kytop]

Originally Posted by hyair

but the Ouragan served till 1980 with the French airforce.

Yair

Little error, I think;
In French service, the Dassault Mystère IV completely replaced the Ouragan by 1961.
But till 1984 in Salvador.

[hyair]

According to my sources the Ouragan served as a secondary line plane till 1980 and was replaced by the alpha jet which replaced the mystere IV as well . In Israel it served till 1973 ( mystere IV till 1971 ) and than was overhauled in IAI- Israeli air industries and sold to el salvador where it served till 1984. The reason for it's longevity was the robust and strong frame and the relatively relailable engine.

Yair

[hyair]

Some more images of the F-84F and Ouragan in 1:48 scale . Also a French airforce Thunderjet plastic model of Heller in 1:72 scale.

Yair

[cafe]

Among the last french users of the Ouragan was the Fighter School (Ecole de Chasse Christian Martell/later Groupement école 314) which relocated from Meknès (Morocco) to Tours in 1961. It replaced the Ouragan with the Mystère IVA in the following months while keeping the T-33s. The school retired the Mystère IVA in 1973.

The Ecole de l'Air at Salon de Provence used a few Ouragans until 1960.

The actual last user was CTB (Centre de Tir et Bombardement) at Cazaux. They used some Ouragans as target tugs between 1955 and 1963.

EC 1/8 Saintonge and EC 2/8 Nice (weapons training units) replaced the Mystère IVA with the Alpha Jet in 1982.

[hyair]

Thanks for your Inputs here Carlos. I still need to cover the mystere and super mystere as I compare them against the sabre and super sabre in the following chapters in this thread.

Yair