The fighter bomber thing had all the hallmarks of a silly rumour. UAE showing interest in the Kobac is more believable but the reports about a light fighter I think were the result of a mistranslation and an over excitable press reading too much into it!

As for ground attack capability the G-4 is pretty reasonable in that respect:

Armament (From the Wiki)
1x GSh-23L 23 mm cannon in ventral gun pod.
2x Inner pylons 350 kg (770 lb)capacity.
2x Outer pylons 250 kg (550 lb) capacity.
1x Centreline pylon 400 kg (880 lb) capacity (G-4M).
2x Wingtip missile rails (G-4M).

That is fairly respectable, to be honest there money is best spent on the G-4MD upgrade with its acceptable ground attack capability then sinking money into the Yak-130. Also people please correct me if I am wrong but the Mig-29M2 has a respectable ground attack capability as well.

My point remains, and I think a lot of fighter pilots would agree that loading a true fighter up like a garbage truck with bombs is just wrong.

It is my understanding that Vought resisted turning the F8 into a bomber untill the very end. Like always ignorant bean counters, and politicians that know nothing screw up things. Look at the fact that desk bound fools took guns off planes like the F4. How many F4s were shot down because they were not flown clean? How many more MIGS could they have shot down if they would have had a gun?

The biggest fool of all was MacNamara!!! He championed the F111. A great example of a plane that was to be all things to all people. It was a 50,000 turkey as a fighter. Later it did work out as a medium bomber.

Putting the F-111 to one side as yes that was a disaster conceptually when it comes to Air to Air kills in the Vietnam war by American fighters the missiles win hands down!

Sidewinder and Sparrow got significantly more kills! The vaunted gun fighter the F-8 only got four of its nineteen kills with its cannons the rest going to Sidewinder.

Early poor performance of Sidewinder and Sparrow were down to a number of factors including:

Lack knowledge in respect of aircrew about the weapons engagement envelope.

Poor maintenance, handling and storage by ground personnel.

The latter point was a significant factor, when a manufacturer representative for the Sparrow visited a carrier to see what was going he was horrified! The missiles were getting little to no maintenance. They were being poorly stored and roughly handled! Deck crew were treating what was a delicate instrument like a dumb bomb or rocket pod! They were literally just slinging them back under the wing if they were not fired in a mission!

All these issues were remedied and both missiles gained an enviable kill score by the end of the war. Actually the much maligned Sparrow eventually became the favoured weapon WVR as it was a bit more discriminating then the fire, forget and pray it doesn’t hit a wingman Sidewinder!

Certainly I think a fighter should have a cannon for many a reason and in this modern cost conscious era the single role fighter is of no use! Swingrole baby 😀

Mig-29M2 would mean more then likely these are some of the Algerian examples. So not exactly new but I presume cheaper then new build Mig-35, beggars can’t be choosy in such matters!

Still rather dubious about the veracity of the announcement as I can’t see how they could pay for them unless the Russians are offloading them with seriously good credit terms.

Bull of the highest magnitude. First flight of the Fairey Delta 6th of october 1954, first orders for prototypes of MD 550 Mirage in march 1954. The construction of the first Mirages prototypes started before the fairey delta had even flown.

Another french delta jet was flown in January 1954, the Payen Pa49. Was the Fairey delta influenced by it? Were they both influenced by the XF92?

Nic

Ummmmm? Go boil your head? Yes that is a nice constructive reply.

I said influenced and there is no doubt the French took interest in the FD2.

Does anyone have any pics, info or anything on this little jet.
It has facintaed me for years, but their is so little out there, I know the Blue Angles opperated them for awhile but nothing about opperational squadrons or what it was like in service, any help guys?

In dying for your emperor you will receive everlasting glory. Yeah right!!!

Not sure that it is suitable for the Canberra class carrier Ja 😉

You need some of these:

Single page, an M2000 is PAF colours flying over some generic mountains towards the camera. It looked like a doctored Dassault publicity shot of an M2000 flying over the Alps more then likely.

I remember Lockheed putting out a very similar advert in Flight International when NewZealand were buying the undelivered PAF F-16. Lucky for Pakistan that NZ changed their mind on that now most have been delivered to the intended customer.

In the 90’s I had a copy of Flight International which I sourly regret getting rid of which had a full page Dassault advert on the back cover celebrating their sale of the M2000 to Pakistan.