Atlas Carver

The Atlas Carver was a proposed South African twin-engine, delta wing, fourth-generation fighter aircraft, the long-term half of a pair of domestic programmes launched when an arms embargo stopped the country buying modern combat aircraft. The short-term half became the Atlas Cheetah upgrade of the Mirage III; Carver was a nearly clean-sheet design meant to replace the Blackburn Buccaneer, the Mirage III and the Cheetah in South African Air Force service, with performance equal to or better than late-generation Soviet fighters that were likely to appear in Angola. Both programmes were headed by Atlas Aircraft Corporation, and France and Israel gave substantial assistance. It was in development through the 1980s and early 1990s, and the government announced its cancellation in February 1991, later buying the Swedish Saab Gripen instead.