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[ This site is PRIVATE and UNOFFICIAL ]
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A Personal Preface
I've never been an airman and I didn't even serve in the IAF. My
"romance" with military aviation began in the early 50's, i.e - since
childhood. That era, of the early jet fighters (the late 40's, the 50's and the 60's), remained my favorite.
Naturally, I was also very much attracted by the IAF and its "glory". Legendary
titles, as Mystere, Super Mystere, Mirage and the like, were
objects of admiration.
Why Another IAF Site ?
Many years later, when I combined my hobby and my occupation,
I "visited" many aviation sites on the Internet, including, of course,
those dedicated to the IAF. I realized that most of these sites
were built as "general" collections of data and pictures. Many of the privately-built
sites, seem to rely on the same, "public", but rather incomplete and misleading
sources.
When I decided, almost three years ago (1999), to build a site of my own, I had
in mind a "semi-professional" presentation, of a quite narrow subject.
At first I thought about "The early IAF jet fighters", but it was still
far from being a resonable "project" in its width. Finally, in August 1999,
I preferred building a site dedicated to a single type, which could be limited enough
and at the same time enable some originality and depth.
I have to add that the numerous sites about modern fighters (let's
say - the generation of the Mirage and later aircraft) don't leave much
space for innovation, since much data and many good pictures are already
published on the web.
Why The VAUTOUR ?
My possibilities were chosing one of the early jet fighters in
the IAF service. I looked for a type with very unique characteristics, history and a contribution to Israel's defence.
The Vautour, AS I FOUND OUT, was exactly the type that deserves a dedicated
site. Months of data gathering only strenghtened my choice.
The Vautour was one of the finest and modern designs in western Europe
of the early 50's. Unfortunately, it became a "forgotten" aircraft.
It was produced in modest quantities, just 140 aircraft, of
which 31 entered the IAF service.
One of the incentives to choose the Vautour was the most fascinating book
"By Day, By Night, Through Haze and Fog", by Yoash Chatto-Tsiddon. No other book,
dedicated to the IAF, contains so much about the Vautour (among many other topics).
Although its long service in the Armee de L'air,
the Vautour is not remmembered as too significant. Its main contribution, as far as I
could deduce, is by being a fine test platform for the next French aircraft, and filling
some gap between the past and new bombers and all-weather fighters.
ON THE OTHER HAND - the Israeli Air Force operated the Vautour
in an outstanding manner, extracted its qualities to the utmost,
and profited all its combat and photo- reconnaissance capabilities.
Although its uniqueness, the Vautour lacked the fame it deserved:
it was shadowed by the glory of the Mirage { "Mach 2" and enemy fighters' kills }, and
was subdued to strict censorship, which revealed very few about the Vautour
for many years.
So it happened that the Vautour was placed in the margins of
the military aviation history.
These pages are an attempt to do some justice to the "forgotten"
Vautour, especially in the Israeli Air Force service.
I hope that the "Vautour Pages" truely have some originality and will arise interest.
IMPORTANT NOTE - TO ALL VISITORS:
These pages are neither a research, nor a reporter's article. The editor has collected
data, mostly, but not entirely, validated, and has tried to avoid "historical judgements". This site might be of help to future researchers as a guide, a "bank of data" , and not
as a well-documented source.
Considerations of editing are one of the preoccupations of the editor. Naturally - these
are subjected to his views about the width and depth of the material to be included. It
is only natural that on this background some of the readers' opinions may be different.
* English is not my natural language, so I apologize for the many faults in spelling, grammar and syntax ....
About the author:
b. 1947, Austria; In Israel from 1948; Bachelor of Sciences, System Analyst
and Advisor; Many years in governmental service, now retired;
@ These pages were written with Dida-Pro editor ;
Environment: Windows 95, Internet-Explorer 5 ;
Best screen resolution to view images: 800x600.
| HISTORY | SPECS. | ARMAMENT | FRENCH VAUTOURS | I.A.F VAUTOURS | GALLERIES |
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