Dassault Super Mystère

The Dassault Super Mystère was a French single-engined supersonic fighter-bomber and the first Western European supersonic aircraft to enter mass production. It was the last step in a line that ran from the Ouragan through the Mystère II, III and IV, and it could pass the speed of sound in level flight where the earlier Mystères managed it only in a dive, thanks to a thin wing swept at 45 degrees and an afterburning turbojet. The first prototype, powered by a Rolls-Royce Avon, flew on 2 March 1955 and broke the sound barrier the next day. The production Super Mystère B2 entered production in 1957 with a SNECMA Atar 101G engine, and 180 were built. France, Israel and Honduras flew it, and Israeli aircraft fought in the Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur War. Two faster B.4 prototypes with a 48 degree wing were built in 1958 but never went into production because the Mirage III was entering service.