BTW, the Mirage F1 was never considered a supercruise type just like the F-104, F-105 EE Lightning, MiG-21 or any other fifties/sixties turbojet design.

Wrong again.

I was talking about the pure sale of the Ju-88, not making it airworthy.

What sort of price was the Ju-88 as a static exhibit going for, roughly?

I believe all of the new build 262’s are now complete.

The last airworthy CASA 2-111 crashed a few years ago; there is one other that could be easily restored to flight; the others need a lot more work.

I did survey a Ju88A-1 a while ago that could have been restored to flight, but as yet, it is still available – for the right deal!

Having plenty of experience of German aircraft, restoration of a bomber is not something one would undertake lightly. Large pockets required!!

Bruce

Just for interests sakes, what would be the ballpark figure for the Ju-88?

number of combat sorties was in the 40k + range. we are talking about 7 years of combat with 3 squadron’s worth of aircraft on average (starting with 1 squadron in 1981 and ending with 4 operational squadrons by 1988). On some days (intensive days) mirages would fly upto 150 sorties in one day, on “normal” days there would be maybe 20 flights including CAP, maritime patrol and land attack / recon flights. their use was intensive from day 1 right until the end of the war, and many were overhauled in france already just after 4 years in service since they reach their overhaul times very quickly. there are dozens of pilots with 1000+ combat hours clocked up on the mirages.

overall the IrAF flew 45k combat sorties in 1986 as an example (all types excluding helicopters of army aviation). the Mirages were about 15% – 20% of these missions.

Interesting, thanks.

I take it from what you say that the Mirage F1 offered high rates of availability?
It’s the sort of impression you get from this aircraft.

Indeed.

This is the first I’ve ever heard of the F-1 having a “mediocre” rate of climb.:D

I think it climbs faster than almost any of the fighter variants of the F-4 Phantom.

The Mirage F-1 is also a very quick plane on the deck, with very few planes that have seen service being quicker down there.

A very under rated plane in my opinion.

The late Brig Genl Dick Lord rated it very highly indeed, and he flew a lot of planes, including both the F-4 Phantom and Mirage F-1.

So they are almost equal. And I even think Mirage F-1 is not a pure fighter for air-combat but an attacker, whereas Mirage F-2 was designed for a2a originally.

The Mirage F-1 was designed as a fighter.
An interceptor, in fact.

South Africa requested a modified version, the F1-AZ, that was turned into a strike platform.

This had additional internal fuel, different radar and avionics, a laser range finder, and retractrable refuelling probe.

That is not to say that the F1C fighter could not be used in the strike role. South Africa used them in that role initially, and of course, later F1 models were capable of a variety of missions.

A Mirage F1CZ interceptor loaded with 8 X 400kg bombs.