Mirage Fl To Be j Test-flown Soon

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31908, 8 February 1969, Page 17

Mirage Fl To Be j Test-flown Soon

(N.Z.P.A. Reuter —Copyright)

PARIS, February 7. France’s latest supersonic fighter aircraft, 5 the Mirage Fl, will make its first test-flight in the next three to five weeks, and its makers . hope to capture a world-wide market.

Built by the Marcel Das-' Company, it is designed succeed the French MirUge 3 and possibly the j American FlO4, in the mid--19705.

• The French Air Force has I already ordered 100 Mirage ■ Fls. The Israeli Air Force, i the other main users of Das- - sault planes, also planned Ito buy IQO until President de Gaulle embargoed the sale.-. Australia is .reported to be keenly interested in the new French fighter, which will fly at twice the speed of sound. I She already builds Mirage 3s under licence and is naturi ally following the development of the Fl very closely. A Dassault spokesman says the -Mirage Fl has success- ' fully undergone ground tests lon the military airfield at jlstres, Southern France, in I readiness for its maiden flight. The new Mirage, a single- ' seat plane with swept-back ' I wings and a conventional tail I j unit, can be used as a fighter, as a tactical bomber, or for . ground support, and is equip-1 ped with two 30mm guns. Itj can also carry bombs, rockets) lor nuclear missiles. The Fl is an improved ver-1 ision of the initial prototype! J which first flew in December, I i 1966, and crashed six months! later during its twenty-fourth | .flight. I