Iaf s'aar. 1:48

[hyair]

During the Yom Kippur war in 1973 the S'aar wings and tail were painted with black and yellow triangles in order to
distingwish between the S'aar and the Hawker Hunter that
were looking simillar from some angles. Egypt recieved
a squadron of Hunters trom Iraq a few months before
the 1973 war and the Hunter was used as a ground attack
fighter like the S'aar.

Yair

[hyair]

In the late 50 's and early 60's the super mystere and mig 17 were the front line jet fighters
of the IAF and EAF. In Yom Kippur war of October 1973 both types served as grount attack fighters. The mig 17 was adapted to carry 2x 250 kg bombs or two rocket pods by adding
2 small pilons while preserving the 2 under wing fuel tanks that were badly needed in order
to give the mig 17 an acceptable range.
The S'aar was a convertion from the super mystere and beside the replacement of the engine
to J52 new pilons were added to carry the shafrir 2 A to A missiles along with m'are pilons for
carrying 4 bombs of 100kg . Also a bombing computer was added to the plane.
The Yom Kippur war proved the following : the mig 17 was lacking in the following areas
as an attack plane - bomb release not accurate and limitted bombs load with limited range.
The S'aar which was a bigger plane had almost everything that needed to be a good attack
plane - bomb release accuracy , good range and a decent bomb load. If only a better bomb
load could be carried the S'aar could be made into an excellent fighter bomber.
The mig 17 was operated by the Egyptians and Syrians in ground attacks but the bombing
results were poor and many were shut down by IAF anti aircraft fire - at least some 30 were
shut down by 40 mm 23 mm and Hawk SAM missiles.
The S'aar high point was in the air to ground attacks against the surounded 3rd army of
the Egyptians were it had very accurate attacks against armored cars , tanks and artillery sites. During the war only 6 S'aar were lost which was the lowest attrition rate of any Israeli jet
fighter ! - this includes 2 which were shut down in the Syrian front by mobile SAM 6 .
I attach here photos of the mig 17 in 2 versions and the S'aar.

Yair

[hyair]

In the past I used to build the landing gear struts and wheels on each aircraft. But lately I realised that sometimes with certain models it's better to leave them in a flight status.

Here are some pictures of the S'AAR in a flight status on a special revolving stand. The original idea for the stand to be honest was taken from YOAV HUZMI who I am shure you all know .

Yair

[YOAVHOZMI]

well done my friend and i was happy to meet you and talk with you at the Israel IPMS.

take care

YOAV

[hyair]

It was my pleasure to meet you as well ! I think we are very
lucky to have such a nice IPMS in Israel .
Also , I wish we could arange a meeting for the paper modelers
only - as there are many talented paper modelers in Israel.
Waiting for the release of your original Super Mystere B2.

With Regards,
Yair

[hyair]

The original super mystere B2 or SAMBAD in short cut was developed originally as an
interceptor. In the IAF it started it's service at the end of 1958 and served in this role till mid
1962 when the first mirage III C squadron 101 originated.
The SAMBAD slowly evolved to an attack fighter while the mirage was the main interceptor.
Then problems with the oil system of the ATAR 101G started and the french embargo didn't
help of course as it was harder to find spares for the aging engine it was decided to install the
J52 of the Skyhawk instead of the original ATAR. This decision gave a new lease of life to
the SAMBAD and the name of the fighter was changed to SA'AR. Then some more changes
were made as 2 more pons were added under the wings and mares maresthat could cary 4
bombs each were added under the wings. A new simple but effective bombing computer was
installed and the final result was an excellent fighter bomber that proved his value in Yom Kippur war. It had the lowest attrition rate of all the Israeli jet fighters that fought in the war -
only six were shut down while 54 Skyhawks were shut down at same period.
The main reason for that was the higher speed of the SA'AR at low level attacks . The SA'AR
was some 60 knots faster in low level attacks and the alongated rear part was good against the SAM 7 strella missiles. After the war the rear part of the Skyhawks was alongated with a barrel shaped part to counter this treat.

I put here pictures of the two - the SAMBAD of the original IAF magazine and YOAV's SA'AR in 1:48 scale.

Yair

[hyair]

The Sa'ar (Sambad ) and Skyray started as prototypes in the 50's. The Skyray first flew in 1951 while the Sambad in 1955. Because of the long developing period and the J40 colossal engine failure that lead to it's replacement with the J57 - which was a much better design it started to enter navy service only in 1956 while the Sambad started to enter service in 1957. Both were able to fly supersonic in level flight - Skyray mach 1.1 and the Sambad mach 1.2. It is fair to note that despite having a much lower thrust engine ( atar 101G with 10000 lb compare to J57 16000 lb with AB ) the Sambad was faster then the Skyray due to much less body drag and thin wings. The Skyray main asset was it's ability to climb fast at 70 degrees angle to hight - this was the main reason why it was the only NAVY plane choosed to serve with NORAD .
Other then that the two had some issues with flight - with the Sambad it was easy to enter a spin at hight and the Skyray had tuck in and out pitch while crossing 0.9 mach back and forth beside some bizarre flying characteristics and in fact was unstable plane way before the age of fly by wire which was interduced in the F-16 some 20 years later.
The Skyray was retired in 1964 while the Sambad served in France till 1977 and in Israel till 1975 as Sa'ar and the remains were sold to Honduras were they served successfully till the early 90's.

Yair