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MD.454 Mystère IV
MD.454 Mystère IV
	Dassault Mystère IVA preserved at the Musée de l'Air.
General information
Type	Fighter-bomber
National origin	France
Manufacturer	Dassault Aviation
Primary users	French Air Force Indian Air Force ; Israeli Air Force
Number built	411
History
Manufactured	1953–1958
Introduction date	April 1953
First flight	28 September 1952
Retired	1980s
Developed from	Dassault Mystère
Developed into	Dassault Super Mystère

The Dassault MD.454 Mystère IV is a 1950s French fighter-bomber aircraft, the first transonic aircraft to enter service with the French Air Force.^[1] It was used in large-scale combat in the Israeli Air Force during the 1967 Six Day War.

Design and development

The Mystère IV was an evolutionary development of the Mystère II aircraft. Although bearing an external resemblance to the earlier aircraft, the Mystère IV was in fact a new design with aerodynamic improvements for supersonic flight. The prototype first flew on 28 September 1952, and the aircraft entered service in April 1953. The first 50 Mystere IVA production aircraft were powered by British Rolls-Royce Tay turbojets, while the remainder had the French-built Hispano-Suiza Verdon 350 version of that engine.

Operational history

Israeli Mystère IVs saw action during the Arab–Israeli wars and were joined by the French Mystères for the Suez crisis.

France

France was the main operator of the Mystère IV and at the peak usage operated 6 squadrons. Most of the aircraft were purchased under a United States Offshore Procurement contract^[2] and many were returned to US custody after they were retired.^[3] In April 1953 the United States government and the United States Air Force placed an order for 223 aircraft to be operated by the French.^[3]

The new Mystère IVs were used in the 1956 Suez Crisis and continued in use into the 1980s.^[3]

Israel

The Mystère IV became Israel's first swept-wing fighter when an order for Mystère IIs was changed to 24 Mystère IVs in 1955, which were delivered from April to June 1956, equipping 101 Squadron. A further 36 were delivered in August 1956, with a final aircraft, equipped for reconnaissance duties, delivered in September 1956.^[4]

On 29 October 1956, when Israel attacked Egypt in the opening move of what became known as the Suez Crisis, invading the Sinai Peninsula, the Mystères of 101 Squadron were deployed on both air-to-air and ground attack missions.^[5] On 30 October the Mystère IV got its first kill when eight aircraft fought 16 Egyptian Air Force MiG-15s. The Mystères shot down one MiG while a second MiG and one of the Mystères were damaged. On the next day, two Mystères engaged claimed four Egyptian De Havilland Vampires shot down, with another MiG-15 and a MiG-17 claimed later that day.^[6] Israeli Mystères flew a total of 147 sorties during the war, for the loss of a single aircraft, shot down by ground fire on 2 November.^[7]

A second squadron, 109 Squadron was equipped with the Mystère IV in December 1956,^[7] while 101 Squadron passed its Mystères to 116 Squadron in November 1961.^[8] Israel planned to replace the Mystère IV with the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk, but 109 and 116 Squadron still operated the French fighter on the outbreak of the Six-Day War. The Mystère was used as a ground attack aircraft during the war, flying 610 sorties, claiming three Arab aircraft (two MiG-17s and a Jordanian Hawker Hunter) shot down for the loss of seven Mystères, five to ground fire and two by enemy fighters (one by an Egyptian MiG-21 and one by a Jordanian Hunter flown by PAF pilot Saiful Azam).^[9]

The Mystère was finally retired from Israeli service on 18 March 1971.^[10]

India

India procured 104 aircraft in 1957 and used them extensively in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965.

On 16 September 1965 a Mystère IVA shot down a Pakistani L-19. On 7 September an Indian Mystère was damaged in the air by a Pakistani Lockheed F-104 Starfighter in a raid over Sargodha. The much faster Starfighter inadvertently accelerated in front of the Mystère and was shot down. Both the Mystère and the Starfighter crashed. The Pakistani pilot was able to eject and parachute down safely but the Indian air force pilot Devayya died in the crash and was awarded the Maha Vir Chakra posthumously, 23 years after the battle.^[11]^[12]

During the beginning of this offensive a PAF F-104 shot down an Indian Air Force Mystère IV with one of its AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles making the first combat kill with a Mach 2-capable aircraft.^[13]

During the campaign Mystère IVs also destroyed Pakistani aircraft on the ground including four F-86F, three F-104 and 2 Lockheed C-130 Hercules transports.^[14]

The phasing out of the aircraft started soon after the 1965 Indo-Pakistani War, though it saw further action in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, it was completely phased out of the Indian Air Force by 1973.

Variants

Mystère IV: Prototype powered by a Rolls-Royce Tay 250 engine

Mystère IVA

Production fighter-bomber, 421 built, first 50 with the Rolls-Royce Tay 250 the remaining 371 with a French derivative of the Tay, the Hispano-Suiza Verdon.

Mystère IVB: In addition to production Mystère IVA, Dassault developed an upgraded Mystère IVB with either Rolls-Royce Avon (first two prototypes) or SNECMA Atar 101 (third prototype) afterburning engine and a radar ranging gunsight. Six pre-production aircraft were built but the project was abandoned in favour of the promising Super Mystère. In 1954, French pilot Constantin Rozanoff was killed while doing a low-level flyover of this aircraft.

Mystère IVN: Dassault also proposed a two-seat all-weather interceptor version called Mystère IVN. The aircraft was equipped with the AN/APG-33 radar in an arrangement similar to North American F-86D Sabre Dog, powered by a Rolls-Royce Avon turbojet, and armed with 55× 68 mm Matra rockets in a retractable belly tray. The first prototype flew on 19 July 1954. AdA eventually decided to purchase Sud Aviation Vautour and F-86K Sabre for the interceptor role but the Mystère IVN prototype continued to fly for several years as a testbed for radar equipment.

Operators

France

French Air Force, 241 delivered

India

Indian Air Force, 110 delivered

Israel

Israeli Air Force, 61 delivered.^[15]

Aircraft on display

Israel

60 – Dassault Mystère IVa at the Israeli Air Force Museum.

United Kingdom

70 – Dassault Mystère IVa at the Midland Air Museum in Coventry.
79 – Dassault Mystère IVa at the Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum in Flixton.
83 – Dassault Mystère IVa at the Newark Air Museum in Winthorpe, Nottinghamshire.
121 – Dassault Mystère IVa at the City of Norwich Aviation Museum in Horsham St Faith, Norfolk.^[16]
318 – Dassault Mystère IVa at the Dumfries and Galloway Aviation Museum in Dumfries, Scotland.

USA

57 – Dassault Mystère IVA at the Pima Air & Space Museum, Tucson, Arizona.^[17]

Poland

146 - Dassault Mystère IVa at the Polish Aviation Museum in Kraków.^[18]

Specifications (Mystère IVA)

Data from The Complete Book of Fighters^[19]

General characteristics

Crew: 1
Length: 12.89 m (42 ft 3 in)
Wingspan: 11.12 m (36 ft 6 in)
Height: 4.6 m (15 ft 1 in)
Wing area: 32.06 m² (345.1 sq ft)
Empty weight: 5,860 kg (12,919 lb)
Gross weight: 8,510 kg (18,761 lb)
Max takeoff weight: 9,500 kg (20,944 lb) ^[20]
Powerplant: 1 × Hispano-Suiza Verdon 350 turbojet engine, 34.32 kN (7,720 lbf) thrust

Performance

Maximum speed: 1,110 km/h (690 mph, 600 kn) at sea level
Range: 915 km (569 mi, 494 nmi) without external tanks^[20]

2,280 km (1,420 mi; 1,230 nmi) with external tanks^[19]

Service ceiling: 15,000 m (49,000 ft) ^[20]
Rate of climb: 40 m/s (7,900 ft/min)

Armament

Guns: 2× 30 mm (1.18 in) DEFA cannons with 150 rounds per gun
Rockets: 55 air-to-air rockets in retractable pack^[21]
Bombs: 1,000 kg (2,200 lb) of payload on four external hardpoints, including a variety of bombs, rockets or Drop tanks

References

Notes

^ Swanborough, Gordon; Green, William A (2001). An Illustrated anatomy of the world's fighters: the inside story of over 100 classics in the evolution of fighter aircraft. Osceola, WI: MBI Pub. p. 196. ISBN 0-7603-1124-2.
^ Lord Ismay (23 April 1953). "NATO announces $550,000,000 aircraft programme". NATO.
^ ^a ^b ^c Orbis 1985, pp. 3605-1608
^ Aloni Air Enthusiast March/April 2005, pp. 15–16.
^ Aloni Air Enthusiast March/April 2005, pp. 17–18.
^ Aloni Air Enthusiast March/April 2005, p. 18.
^ ^a ^b Aloni Air Enthusiast March/April 2005, p. 19.
^ Aloni Air Enthusiast March/April 2005, p. 20.
^ Aloni Air Enthusiast March/April 2005, pp. 21–23.
^ Aloni Air Enthusiast March/April 2005, p. 23.
^ "Maha Vir Chakra awards (IAF)". Bharat Rakshak (Indian Armed Forces). Archived from the original on 10 July 2014. Retrieved 22 June 2014.
^ "Maha Vir Chakra awards (1988)". Bharat Rakshak (Indian Armed Forces). Retrieved 22 June 2014.
^ Dutch Aviation Society. "Armed Forces Overviews - Pakistan Air Force / پاک فضائیہ (Pakistan Fiza'ya)". Dutch Aviation Society.
^ B. Harry (2 September 2006). "IAF COMBAT KILLS - 1965 INDO-PAK AIR WAR" (PDF). orbat.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 November 2010. Retrieved 9 September 2010.
^ Aloni Air Enthusiast March/April 2005, p. 16.
^ "Aircraft List". City of Norwich Aviation Museum. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
^ "Aiframe Dossier". Aerial Visuals. Retrieved 30 December 2023.
^ "Museum's website". Muzeum Lotnictwa Polskiego. Retrieved 22 July 2024.
^ ^a ^b Green and Swanborough 1994, p. 149.
^ ^a ^b ^c Aloni Air Enthusiast March/April 2005, p. 15.
^ Bridgman 1955, p. 139.

Bibliography

Aloni, Shlomo (March–April 2005). "Swept-Wing Backbone: Mystère IVAs in Israeli Service". Air Enthusiast (116): 12–23. ISSN 0143-5450.
Bridgman, Leonard (1955). Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1955–56. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Buttler, Tony (January 2019). "Dassault's X-Files: The Ouragan 30L, Barougan, Mystère de Nuit & Mystère IVN". The Aviation Historian (26): 40–50. ISSN 2051-1930.
Carbonel, Jean-Christophe (2016). French Secret Projects. Vol. 1: Post War Fighters. Manchester, UK: Crecy Publishing. ISBN 978-1-91080-900-6.
Donald, David; Lake, Jon, eds. (1996). Encyclopedia of world military aircraft. AIRtime Publishing. ISBN 1-880588-24-2.
Green, William; Swanborough, Gordon (1994). The Complete Book of Fighters. New York: Smithmark. ISBN 0-83173939-8.
Kopenhagen, W, ed. (1987). Das große Flugzeug-Typenbuch [The large airplane type book] (in German). Transpress. ISBN 3-344-00162-0.
Rocher, Alexis, ed. (May 2023). "Les 70 ans de la Patrouille de France: L'âge d'or des "Mystère" IV supersoniques; première partie" [70 Years of the Patrouille de France: The Golden Age of the Supersonic Mystere IV, Part 1]. Le Fana de l'Aviation (in French) (642): 18–30. ISSN 0757-4169.
The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft. Vol. Part Work 1982–1985. Orbis Publishing.