Aircraft Books (since 1945) - France - Armée De L'air (1/2)

French Air Force - Contemporary Aircraft

NEW

This highly illustrated volume looks at the French Air Force as it sees the withdrawal of the Transall Gabriel and the Dassault Mirage 2000C in 2022.

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French Secret Projects 2: Bombers, Patrol and Assault Aircraft

As early as 1944 France began the task of re-building its military aircraft industry and developing high performance aircraft for its armed forces. In doing so, French aircraft manufacturers produced some of the most innovative, and indeed outlandish, bomber projects, proposals, designs and prototypes of the Cold War era.
Many French bomber projects started life in response to proposals from the French armed forces. Others were originated by the industry itself, it was also not unusual for rejected fighter designs to be entered in bomber competitions, etc.

As France became a nuclear power, so its requirement for nuclear strike aircraft (such as the Dassault Minerve V) grew, and many projects for advanced strike aircraft, including Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) designs, followed. Turbojet, ramjet and rocket propulsion and supersonic designs were all researched, sometimes taking advantage of captured German 'wartime technology or using national pre-war research.

Companion volume to the acclaimed "French Secret Projects 1"; period drawings, promotional art, photographs of prototype aircraft, mock-ups, wind tunnel and promotional models are all combined to present, in "French Secret Projects 2", a comprehensive view of French military bomber and strike aircraft designs from the Liberation of France to the late twentieth-century.

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Avions nucléaires français, de 1964 à nos jours

Since October 1964, the piloted air component has continuously ensured strategic and tactical nuclear monitoring. Like nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, this available and operational component can, at any time, be put on alert and activated on the orders of the President of the Republic if the extreme seriousness and imminence of a threat against France were proven.

For the first time, a book traces the history of French nuclear aircraft, the history of their nuclear weapons and their deterrence missions implemented by the Strategic Air Forces, the oldest command of the Air Force, since 1964, by the Tactical Air Force from 1973 to 1991 and by the French Navy since 1979.

All airborne nuclear weapon systems - the aircraft/nuclear weapon pair - are discussed in their context, at the technical level and at the operational level in squadrons and flotillas:
- Mirage IV A/ANM, Mirage IV P/ASMP, Mirage III E/ANT,
- Jaguar A/ANT,
- Super Etendard /ANT, Super Etendard - SEM /ASMP,
- Mirage 2000 N/ASMP, Mirage 2000 Nk3/ASMP-A,
- Rafale M F3/ASMP-A and Rafale B F3/ASMP-A.

The history of these piloted air vectors, written by one of the best specialists on the subject, is abundantly illustrated by numerous documents, often rare and unpublished, which make it a reference book.

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Jets de combat - du Vampire au Rafale

The result of Alain Crosnier and Philippe Roman's direct experience with Air Force aviators, this book offers a unique overview of more than fifty years of combat aviation in France. From the Vampire, in service since 1948, to the Rafale, a concentrate of advanced technologies, the evolution of French fighters is traced: from American aircraft to the first French creations, to the Mirage 2000, the current spearhead.

While the planes have changed, the passion of the crews and mechanics remains intact. This book tells the story of fighter and bomber units, from their bases in France to distant theaters of operations in Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. Enriched with testimonies from pilots and navigators as well as many unpublished photographs, it immerses the reader in the air action.

Both a historical reference and an exclusive illustrated album, this book is aimed at military aeronautics enthusiasts and anyone fascinated by combat aircraft. It highlights the epic of the conquerors of the sky, immortalized in white streaks drawn in the azure.

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Prototypes de l'aviation française 1945-1960

When the Second World War ended in 1945, the national aeronautics industry had just suffered more than four years of isolation under the constraint of the occupier and had fallen far behind the capabilities considerably developed during the period by the main belligerents: England, Germany, the United States, Russia. Fifteen years of effort, punctuated by multiple failures, nevertheless made it possible to overcome this handicap often considered irreparable and to open the way to the development of an aviation industry that had regained its global influence.

This book presents the characteristics of the French prototypes designed during this critical period. Produced using the archives of their official evaluation files by the Flight Test Center, it offers for each of them a photographic quadriptych accompanied by a summary of their performances and flight qualities, which eloquently illustrates the difficulties of all kinds encountered by the design offices and production centers of the manufacturers, before they could reach the level of competence of their foreign counterparts.

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