History of the Mirage
In 1954 Dassault took the plans of
the Fairey F.D.2, a tailless delta-winged research aircraft designed for
Mach 2 and, with Fairey's assistance, used this as the basis of a
fighter to be called MIRAGE. First, came a simple research aircraft, Mirage
I, flown on 25 June 1955. The twin-engine Mirage II was discarded on 30
January 1956 and within 9 months Dassault created Mirage III, powered by an
afterburning Atar. On 24 October 1958, Roland Glavany in a Mirage IIIA
reached over Mach 2 in level flight, the first time this had been achieved
in Europe.
From the IIIA Dassault developed many versions of the
Mirage III, 5 and 50, selling 1,422 to customers worldwide, including 19
air-forces which had previously bought British jet fighters. The same design
was scaled up to produce the twin engine Mirage IVA and later the Entendard
light fighter, which was developed into various Entendard IV and Super
Entendard missile-armed naval attack aircraft.
In 1966, a totally fresh start resulted in the Mirage F1,
with fuselage and afterburning Atar engine similar to the delta Mirages but
with w much smaller high-mounted swept wing and horizontal tail.
The F1-CZ variant is faster than the Mirage III family as the delta wing of
the Mirage III aircraft created too much drag in combat and high
landing speeds. By contrast, the F1-CZ needed 23% less runway for takeoff
and has an approach speed 20% lower. The maximum wing loading was also
vastly improved by the leading edge slats giving this aircraft more
maneuverability and almost double the loading of its predecessor.
The F1-CZ's success was mainly due to the very well laid out cockpit and its
major combat aid, the Thompson-CSF Cyrano IV multifunction radar system
capable of providing the pilot with automatic follow-up and fire control.
Dassault granted the South African Air-Force a manufacturing license and
from 1977, Atlas (DENEL) manufactured these locally, the first being No 204.
This was a top secret operation at that stage and it was only in June of
1985 that the first SAAF F1-CZ was displayed and the South African public
had the opportunity of seeing what their tax money had bought.
Two F1-CZ's were permanently on standby in a special hangar and a plug in
chord kept their systems quietly ticking over for a "Scramble" to intercept
any suspicious aircraft appearing over Southern African skies.
The Dassault Mirage F1 is fitted with a SNECMA Atar 9K-50
turbojet rated at 11,023 lb st (49.03 kN) dry and 15,785 lb st (70.21 kN)
with afterburning.
Its maximum level speed (clean) at 36,090 ft (11,00 m)
is 1,453 mph (2,338 km/h); maximum rate of climb at sea level 41,930 ft (12,780
m) per minute with afterburning, service ceiling of 65,615 ft (20,000 m);
combat radius 324 nm (600 km) on a lo-lo-lo attack mission.
An empty weight of 16,313 lb (7400 kg); normal takeoff
24,030 lb (10,900 kg) maximum take-off 35,715 lb (16,200 kg); wing span of
30 ft 6.75 in (9.32 m)
