Dassault-Convair F-114 Mirage

[Spinners 15,986]

Dassault-Convair F-114A Mirage - 119th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, New Jersey ANG, 1965

 

During the Spring of 1961 the incoming Secretary of Defence Robert S. McNamara left no stone unturned in his search for efficiencies in procurement and operational costs and his attention soon turned to the Air Defence units of the Air National Guard (ANG). At the time the ANG units were operating a mix of early 1950's jet fighters such as the F-84 and F-86 alongside the hot ships of the 'Century Series' with some fanciful and expensive plans on future re-equipment by advanced versions of the F-106 and, looking further ahead, the F-108. But McNamara soon put these plans in jeopardy by setting his whizz-kids to work on a lower cost solution.

 

Adoption of the F-4 Phantom II by the USAF was all well and good but this was an expensive beast even when considering 'commonality' and with several hundred aircraft to replace another solution was needed. Envious eyes were soon turned to Europe where two excellent single-engined Mach 2 interceptors were entering service - the Saab Draken and the Mirage III and 'Project Zeus' was an exhaustive study into the operational effectiveness and expected cost-savings of both types measured against re-starting the recently closed F-106A production line. Studies continued through 1961 and early 1962 and, when published in May 1962, 'Project Zeus' revealed that the Mirage IIIC offered the best combination of price and performance. Crucially, it further outlined that only a minimum change version would yield sufficient cost savings as plans to re-engine the Mirage with the J-79 and to introduce the Hughes MA-X radar (essentially a scaled-down version of their MA-1 integrated fire control system as fitted to the F-106A) reduced the gains to zero.

With Convair's hopes of further F-106A production dashed they readily agreed to partner Dassault and licence-produce the Mirage IIIC for the USAF soon designated as the F-114A. Production commenced in late 1963 and the type entered service in May 1964 with the 119th Fighter Interceptor Squadron of the New Jersey ANG. The F-114A served until the early 1980's with most replaced by the F-16A (ADC).

 

 

 

 

Edited July 10, 2011 by Spinners

[Wrench 9,848]

suggestions:

 

repaint the skin over the 'MirageIII', put the star there. ala 102

(american A/C never used manufacuter's name on the birds, excepting MAYBE prototype "Y*-**" versions) remove the red around the intake, us sideways "V" shaped warning stripes

move USAirForec forward, reduce size by 10-15%

wing markings should be 'square' the fuselage (as is SOP)

serial number moved to tail fin, reduced in size by 25% (american serials are always on the fin)

Buzz number might go on aft tail section -- see F-100, F-104, F-102, etc

 

make sure winders are avialable for post-falcon years.

 

It's a NICE what if!

Edited July 10, 2011 by Wrench

[dsawan 624]

Agree!

[Wrench 9,848]

yeah, seriously! let me have it for a couple hours ... and it'll look like a real USAF bird!!

Edited July 11, 2011 by Wrench

[+streakeagle 871]

The Mirage looks all too well in USAF colors. It could easily have served with Air Defense Command. In those colors, it kind of looks like a delta-winged F-104...

Which leads to the inverse: what if France had flown F-102s, F-104s or F-106s instead of Mirage IIICs? With similar intakes, the F-104 would look good in the Mirage paint scheme with "Starfighter" across the nose :)

Edited July 11, 2011 by streakeagle

[+daddyairplanes 10,241]

in that universe..... 1st!!! DeGaulle has to go. he was way too France first for that too have come close to flyin. leads to 2nd!!!!! How much does Lockheed bribe the French AF to buy em? admittedly it would look good but this is a guy who'd only shut up about Americans leaving french soil when the SecState of the time asked him if we should remove the war dead from the American cemetaries in france!

[Spinners 15,986]

I must admit to thinking about the F-104 in ADA service and the decals included in the Mirage IIIC DLC make this easier than you might think.

[+Spillone104 553]

Really nice What-If Spinner! It looks as nice as a Six!

I would suggest to make it look more as an ADC interceptor to put a couple of Falcon stations under the belly similar to the concept of the F-101B.

[Wrench 9,848]

who need crappy Falcons, when you can call upon a Genie?

 

(very quick and dirty experiment -- definately needs reskinning to remove a BUNCH of stuff)

Edited July 11, 2011 by Wrench

[Stratos 3,192]

Will be even cooler with some markings on the tail.

[Toryu 156]

I think the closest what-if to an American Mirage III was the M IIIS of the Swiss:

It had the integrated Hughes fire-control radar/ Falcon suit-up.

Too bad TK won't relaese a Mirage IIIE-model.

 

That leaves us with the engine-question.

I think it's very safe to say that the original Atar 9B wasn't much of a great turbojet (and neither was the 9C).

The safest guess would be an engine-replacement - most assuredly by an Avon 200 or Avon 300 (the J-79 is too heavy and too hot for a quick modifications - look ant the Kfir and how they had to mess around with different issues caused by the new engine!).

 

What about a Sparrow-capability?

[Spinners 15,986]

Interesting thoughts. But my backstory revolves around cost-savings for McNamara and slotting in a new engine would add to the cost as would avionics changes - just ask the Swiss who ended up with the most expensive Mirage's of all time even without re-engining!

[Toryu 156]

The re-engine job had actually been done (look into the German Mirage III-thread) by the Aussies who fitted an Avon 300 into a Mirage IIIC airframe with minor changes and a HUGE performance-gain.

 

I'm not quite sure about the Hughes defense-system, but if it had aleady been develloped to a certain stage, it could as well also have been taken-over from the Convair-project that had the airplane-development on top of the fire-control-system development.

 

The Mirage was pretty much "fly away and be happy" at that time - not without it's own share of problems, though.

Most of them being radar- and engine-ralated.

Edited July 17, 2011 by Toryu

[Stratos 3,192]

In SEA cammo (ala F105) and acting as a fighter bomber flying from Thailand would be a great addition to SF: Vietnam. Any chance Spinners?

[Toryu 156]

Any news on the F-114 or does Edwards still have some issues to fix?

[Stratos 3,192]

Any news on the F-114 or does Edwards still have some issues to fix?

 

Yeah! I'm interested too. Hope you can release your version Spinners, love it!

[Wrench 9,848]

It's still at Edwards for flight testing (screenies in the main SF2 screenshot forum...if anyone had bothered to look) Several also at Tyndal for weapons testing

Edited August 13, 2011 by Wrench

[Stratos 3,192]

It's still at Edwards for operational testing (screenies in the main SF2 screenshot forum...if anyone had bothered to look)

 

I saw a Genie test there, and I'm really looking forward to a Vietnam deployment.

[Toryu 156]

SEA-camo on a Mirage III - talk about an abomination

[Wrench 9,848]

the abomination is how frakking cross-eyed I was going redrawing all the stinking panel and rivet lines!!