latest issue Le Fana de l'Aviation June 2025 - the first Mirage delta

 

 On my other blogs the French aviation press gets good coverage,especially given that noted author Jean-Louis Roba writes regularly for both 'Avions' and 'Aerojournal'  -  time to devote more coverage to that other regular on French news stands, 'Le Fana de l'Aviation'. A preview of coverage reposted from Le Fana's own site...current issue features the Mirage I  - 'Dassault's master-stroke'. The first flight of a 'Mirage' with delta configuration took place on 25 June 1955. Engines were British Vipers.

Russian MiG 31 'Foxhound' interceptor "Homeland watchdog" - Kinzhal, hypersonic missile

The MiG 31 was conceived as long-range Mach-3 interceptor capable of lengthy patrolling and destroying multiple targets including cruise missiles on the same sortie at "extreme ranges". Although not specifically designed in response to the F-14 Tomcat, developmental work began soon after the first appearance of the US type in 1972 according to Yefim Gordon - when the Cold War was at its coldest. Like the F-14 the MiG 31 carries long-range air-to-air missiles, efficient avionics and weapons-control systems, and, again like the F-14, well over 500 examples were manufactured.. The first prototype ('Blue 831' - Izdelye 83, aircraft No.1) was completed in mid-1975. Unlike the MiG-25, the MiG 31 features a two-man crew, the back-seater being a weapons systems officer to operate the Zaslon radar. Full-scale production in Gorkii began in 1979. Despite the loss of several aircraft during trials, the MiG-31 worked up a good reliability record in actual service. The aircraft possessed unique capabilities, being the world's first production interceptor fitted with a phased-array radar, the Zaslon S-800 Passive Electronically Scanned Array radar designed to track multiple low-flying targets. The radar was capable of detecting targets in the front and rear hemisphere over land and water, day and night in VFR and IFR conditions. It could track up to ten targets simultaneously and aim long range missiles at four targets at once. It originally had a range of 125 miles, which Russia has since upgraded multiple times.The MiG-31 needs about 3,900 feet to take off.

The tricycle landing gear featured novel twinwheel main bogies: the tandem mainwheels
did not have a common track (ie, the front wheels faced inboard and the rear ones outboard).
This enabled the bogie to rotate and fold into a remarkably small space during retraction while decreasing runway loading considerably, thus enabling the aircraft to operate from dirt and ice strips.

The MiG-31BM variant below features a Zaslon-M radar. It has a range of nearly 2000 miles, longer-range air-to-air missiles like the R-33S, and more.    

Russia also successfully test fired a Kh-47M2, or Kinzhal, hypersonic missile from the MiG-31BM in March, and is currently fitting the missile to the MiG-31K variant.

Moscow claims that the Kinzhal can hit speeds of up to Mach 10, has a range of 1,200 miles and are basically impossible to detect by modern air defense systems.

While many western analysts remain skeptical of the Kinzhal's capabilities, the missile appears to be an adaptation of the Iskander-M short-range ballistic missile that flies at hypersonic speeds. The MiG-31 can also reach 65,000 feet in nearly nine minutes and even hit altitudes of 67,500 feet.

The second layer of the atmosphere, the stratosphere, starts at 59,000 feet. It has a top speed of Mach 3 and can hit Mach 1.23 at low altitudes.

Russian Ministry of Defense

There have been a number of accounts of MiG-31 fighters catching the legendary high-altitude SR-71 US spy plane.

A Russian pilot claimed he locked his missiles onto an SR-71 Blackbird during one incident, and six MiG-31 Foxhounds once cornered a Blackbird in another.

The Foxhound's main armament is the R-33 long-range missile, similar to the (obviously now retired from US service) F-14's AIM-54 Phoenix missile, and it can lock onto four targets at once.

It can carry four of the R-33 long-range missiles, two R-40TD-1 medium-range missiles, and four R-60MK short-range missiles. It also has a 9-A-768 23mm gun. The Mig-31DZ, a variant released in 1989, was the first MiG-31 able to refuel in midair.

" ...Imagine flying a plane so high that the world looks spherical and the sky is pitch-black. The Mikoyan Mig-31 fighter is the only jet plane in the world to make it possible to fly on the very edge of space.

With an incredible speed of 3,000 km/h, the Soviet-designed interceptor is the world’s fastest serving aircraft, and it can fly twice as high as a commercial flight. Travelling at more than twice the speed of sound, the MiG-31 can touch the stratosphere and breach what's known as the Armstrong limit. beyond which a pilot’s tears and saliva would boil without a pressure suit.

Even at such incredible heights, the MiG-31 can still deal with its enemies. The fighter is armed with long and short-range missiles that can be launched against high-speed targets.

At Khotilovo air base, RTD attempts to give viewers a first-hand experience of near-space travel aboard this unique aircraft by mounting cameras on the airframe and inside the cockpit. See what breaking the sound barrier looks like and why, despite being designed in the 1970s, the MiG-31 remains at the top of its game and unrivalled to this day...."

A Russian MiG-31 landing and deploying parachutes.

 Russian Ministry of Defense

Moscow has about 252 MiG-31s and plans to construct some 100 MiG-31 BMs and MiG-31 BSMs by 2020. And while Mikoyan has plans for a MiG-31 successor, the MiG-41, the Foxhound will continue flying until at least 2030. The CEO of the Russian MiG corporation said in August that the MiG-41 "is not a mythical project" and that work on an experimental design for the fifth-generation interceptor will begin "in the immediate future." The same MiG corporation chief executive, Ilya Tarasenko, also made some wild claims about the MiG-41 in September 2017, saying it would fly in space, reach speeds of 2,800 mph, carry lasers, and more. Despite these predictions, the MiG-41, if it's even made, would not be ready for deployment until 2035 to 2040.


Text based on Yefim Gordon, businessinsider.com and globalsecurity.org

Bundesluftwaffe Jagdbombergeschwader 32 Lechfeld Panavia Tornado - ebay photo find 87

Luftwaffe Jagdbombergeschwader 32 Lechfeld Panavia Tornado

Luftwaffe Jäger F-104 G Starfighter 1967

Jäger WTD 61 F-104G Starfighter

Fouga Magister

on offer here

If you place the F-14, F-15, F-16, F-18, Mirage 2000, Eurofighter 2000, Gripen, Rafale, Mig29, Su-27, MiG-25, and the Harrier in an aerial arena and ask them to dogfight to the death, which is the last one flying?

by Shawn Derrek, Sim Pilot on F-15C, Su-27/33, MiG-29A/G/S, Su-25/T

Let me give you a definitive answer. It depends. Dont believe me? Ask any former fighter pilot or someone who knows what he's talking about to answer this. I bet they will say the same. Given the infinite amount of factors eg. Aircraft loadout, fuel, weight, altitude, airspeed, missile pK, countermeasure effectiveness and the general concept of who shoots first will win etc, it is literally not possible to answer your question. Anyone who says otherwise is not considering these or does not know what they are talking about. I can however, give you a likely winner.

PS: I won't talk much about gun kills, as it's a simple concept and you're normally going down if someone guns you. Did I also mention the probability of a missile hitting a target when it is dispensing countermeasures is literally like rolling a dice? You never know the outcome.

Now prepare yourself for a very long article on the capabilities and vulnerabilities of each aircraft. For simplicity's sake, I will use the best combat loadout that is normally taken for each individual aircraft.

F-14 Tomcat

check.

Now, it is worth mentioning that the F-14 was designed for fleet air defense and is more of an interceptor than anything else. It can dogfight, just it isn't very good at it.

The F-14 normally comes equipped with 4x AIM-7 Sparrows (semi-active radar guided), 2x AIM-54 Phoenix (active radar guided) and 2x AIM-9 Sidewinder (heatseeking) missiles and a 20mm M61A1 Vulcan. As you can probably tell from it's combat loadout, it has a fair bit of long range firepower, not so much on the dogfighting side of things. That being said, the F-14 could dogfight sufficiently well given it had enough energy. However, the wing sweep on the F-14 was commonly complained about, as it was a dead giveaway on how much energy the aircraft had retained. In a dogfight, if you lose energy, you lose the fight (some Russian aircraft excluded). Now, at close ranges (especially furballs), most fighter pilots would use heatseekers as they are more maneuverable and are generally better suited for close ranges. Now, as previously mentioned, I can't give an answer. No one can. But I will state the one that is most likely to survive. Moving on.

F-15C Eagle

The F-15 is a remarkable fighter, with absolutely no losses in aerial engagements. Now, that might lead you to believe the F-15 is invincible. I can tell you it isn't. I know how it flies, how it handles under different situations and how the weapon systems and countermeasures work. The main advantage of the F-15 is in fact, it's maneuverability and missiles.

The F-15C comes equipped with a load of either 4x AIM-120 AMRAAM (active radar guided) and 4x AIM-9 Sidewinder (heatseeking) missiles OR 6x AIM-120 and 2x AIM-9. The F-15 has the same Vulcan that is used on the F-14. For the best case scenario, I will use the first loadout. With 4 heatseekers, the F-15 definitely stands a better chance of maneuvering for a kill against a target, and has more ordinance to hand feed to said target. The aircraft, despite it's delta wing design, turns pretty hard at speeds at or above 300 knots, and could pull some pretty high alpha at speeds lower than 300 knots for snapshots at targets. However, all US aircraft are conditioned for long range BVR combat. Thus they share common similarities with each other. While the AMRAAM is definitely better against maneuvering targets compared to the Phoenix, it still isn't the best at close ranges.

F-16C Fighting Falcon (Viper)

This is something I have to stress right from the beginning. The F-16 is a VERY GOOD dogfighter. The main advantage of the F-16 is its maneuverability, which it excels in. Having a relaxed static stability/fly-by-wire system, the F-16 was designed to be unstable from the get-go, and that's where it gets it's maneuverability from.

The F-16 can carry a load of 6x AIM-9s to go with its Vulcan cannon. This makes it shine as a dogfighter and it can pull hard turns and maneuvers that some aircraft just can't do because of their respective aerodynamic qualities.

F/A-18C Hornet

It should be noted that the F/A-18 was not designed solely for air combat. Then again, so did the F-16, so the F/A-18 should be pretty good right? Well, it depends. The Hornet can pull some pretty insane Alpha and turns fairly tightly for an aircraft of its size and weight. In a dogfight, it stands just as good a chance as any other aircraft. With a HMCS, the F/A-18 has the ability to lock on to any aircraft within the aircraft's visual cueing cone.

The Hornet can carry a maximum load of 4x AIM-9s and 2x AIM-7s OR AIM-120s. I'm actually running out of ideas on what to say here, until we get to the Russians at least. You know the drill. AIM-9 is good. AIM-120 can even used but it not the most ideal when really close to an enemy aircraft.

Mirage-2000C

Ah the good ol' Mirage-2000. It's a fun aircraft to fly. Not so much in the way of dogfighting though. I wrote an answer for this aircraft a few days ago regarding air combat. Now, the Mirage is a delta wing design, which means less lift. But, unlike the F-15, it doesn't have traditional control surfaces. The Mirage uses elevons that function for both roll and pitch, which is the same as the F-15. The only problem, being they are mounted on the wings themselves, which equates to less pitch control at low speeds, thus not making it the best dogfighter out there.

The M-2000 is equipped with 2x Matra Super 530s (semi-active radar guided) and 2x Matra R-550 Magic IIs (heatseeking). It can hold it's own in a dogfight, but I doubt it does too well in a furball. If you really want to know, at low speeds, the delta wing on the Mirage limits it's pitch authority so bad that the 3rd gen F-5E can turn with it.

Eurofighter Typhoon (we're halfway down the list, YAY!)

The Eurofighter Typhoon. Very beautiful aircraft indeed. Unlike traditional delta wing designs like the M-2000C, the Typhoon is exceptionally maneuverable at both low and high speeds, thanks to it's fly-by-wire system and use of canards. The Eurofighter is one of the best on this list, and may very well win in a furball. The reason behind this is it has a HMCS and lock-on-after-launch (LOAL) capability. However, let's not jump to conclusions.

The Eurofighter carries… err… well I'll be completely honest. I don't really know the amount of air to air weaponry it can carry. However, the typical Eurofighter carries 6x AIM-120 and 2x AIM-132 ASRAAM or IRIS-T (heatseeking) missiles. Since we can't really talk about how good the missiles are because it's impossible to predict real life situations, I won't bother.

JAS-39 Gripen

I don't really know what to say for the Gripen. It is essentially a Eurofighter by aerodynamic design, with a similar fly-by-wire system and canards for improved stability and maneuverability and a HMCS as well. Therefore, I will move straight to the weapon systems. Besides, I don't really know the Gripen that well, so I won't pretend to.

In the best case scenario, a Gripen may carry 6x AIM-9s OR IRIS-T OR A-Darter (heatseeking) missiles.

Dassault Rafale

WHY DO THEY DO THIS? It's pretty much exactly the same as both the Eurofighter and the Gripen in terms of agility, avionics and weapons. Can we skip this one?

The Rafale can carry a number of Magic IIs and MICA (radar guided/infrared homing) missiles.

Mikoyan Gurevich MiG-29S

Now we're getting to the fun stuff. Like the American aircraft, I actually don't need to refer to any external sources for this. Now, the MiG-29's armament is different depending on the model, so I'll use the MiG-29S. The Fulcrum can perform hard sustained turns for long periods and is excellent in the dogfighting department with it's powerful engines and most importantly, the High Off Boresight (HOBS) missile capability and Infrared Search and Track (IRST) sensor which gives the Russian aircraft a major edge in close ranges. By simply pointing his head and looking at an enemy aircraft, the pilot can lock the target and launch a missile within a +-60° cone in front of the aircraft. It doesn't help the offending pilot that the Russian R-73 heatseekers are supermaneuverable and can literally turn almost 180° for target interception.

The MiG-29S is capable of carrying 2x R-77 (active radar guided), 2x R-27ER/ET/R/T/P (radar guided/heatseeking depending on model) and 2x R-73 (highly maneuverable heatseeking) missiles. The highlight here is the R-73 which is, for lack of a better word, stupidly maneuverable, though limited in range compared to its counterparts from other countries.

Sukhoi Su-27

One of my personal favourites. I know her like the back of my hand. The Su-27 is supermaneuverable, can turn incredibly tight, is able to perform Pugachev's Cobra to either snap it's nose close to an enemy for it's pilot to use the HMD and HOBS missiles or to break the radar lock of an enemy aircraft. It has a very long range and carried a huge complement of missiles.

The Flanker carries multiple loadouts: 6x R-27ER/ET/EP/R/T/P, 2x R-73 and 2x wingtip mounted SPS-171 “Sorbtsiya” ECM pods OR 4x R-27ER/ET/EP/R/T/P, 4x R-73 and 2x wingtip mounted SPS-171 “Sorbtsiya” ECM pods OR 4x R-27ER/ET/EP/R/T/P and 6x R-73.

I know where to find a manual for it if you want one.

Mikoyan Gurevich MiG-25

Ugh. I'm not even posting a photo. The MiG-25 is a bad dogfighter, like very bad. It's only advantage was it's speed, and that was only at high altitude. It is slower compared to other aircraft at sea level. Plus, with a maximum G-loading of 4.5G, it doesn't really do well.

The MiG-25 carries a load of 4x R-40RD/TD (long range semi-active radar guided/heatseeking respectively) OR 2x R-23 OR 2x R-60 OR 4x R-73.

Harrier

Remark: This thing isn't a very good fighter. In fact, it isn't one.

As far as I understand the Harrier, it uhh… just won't survive in a furball. The MiG-25 stands a better chance. No, really.

The Harrier can equip 4x AIM-9s. For the fancy AV-8B Plus, which actually has a radar fitted, it can fire 6x AIM-120s. For self defense mind you.

Conclusion

Now comes the likely winners of the furball. I say winners because I can't say. It only takes a missile to destroy an aircraft, and it doesn't matter where said missile comes from. Whether it comes from an A-10 or F-5.

So the likely winners would be: F-16, F/A-18, Eurofighter, Gripen, Rafale, MiG-29 and Su-27.

Note: The Harrier is a good aircraft, I can tell you that. But by no means is it a dogfighter even with VSTOL nozzle capabilities.

Victor K.1 tanker - Phantom F-4 M and Victor K.1 1967 -ebay photo find #65

An original MOD photograph of a Victor K.1 refuelling Lightning F.6 XR723 and Buccaneer S.2B XV155.

MOD wet stamp to rear. Neg. No. TN6361/6. On offer via seller 'speyphantom'. His sales- always worth looking at - are here

Phantom F-4M and Victor K.1 1967, original McDonnell Douglas photograph. A recent Ebay sale via 'speyphantom' - £35

An original McDonnell Douglas photograph of the Prototype Phantom F-4M XT852 and Victor K.1 XA930 during in flight refuelling trials in the USA circa July 1967.

McDonnell Douglas wet stamp to rear. Neg. No. D4C 52439

and a 55 Sqn machine landing in Malta circa 1972

on offer here

RAF Jaguars at Coltishall - Ebay photo find #63

A good large lot of approx eighty-four (84) original 35mm colour negatives. Taken at RAF Coltishall, this large lot of original negatives is the second and final part of a Jaguar Jamboree weekend. The lot does include other aircraft which were taking part, but consists mostly of Royal Air Force Jaguars. On offer here