THE VAUTOUR IN THE IAF SERVICE - SECTION 7

FIRST YEARS EXPERIENCES


OUT OF STORAGE and FIRST FLIGHTS IN ISRAEL

1. Seventeen Vautours (13 A & 4 N) were stored in Hatzor AFB, as a covert "V" flight, under the responsibility of sqn. 115 (PR), for about 8 months.
2. Immediately after the Vautour deal was revealed by the French authorities (only A variant was officially mentioned through many years), the stored Vautours were ferried to their permanent squadrons:

* The 4 Vautour "N" were flown to Tel-Noff, April 7, by Yoash Tsiddon and Ezra Aharon, a pair each . {The first Vautour to fly in the open was flown by E. Aharon}
* In April 7 & 8, the 13 Vautour "A" were flown to Ramat David, by Danni Shapira, Ezra Aharon and probably also by Yehezkel Somech. {The first Vautour A to fly was No. 17, also piloted by E. Aharon}.
* These internal ferry flights included some "demonstrations" over the IAF main bases.

3. The four Vautour N were actually inactive till June 1958. The only trained crews (two pilots and two navigators) had still to ferry Vautours from France. During this two months the ground crews had their chance to study the Vautours, instructed by the technicians who had been in Mont-de-Marsan and Tours.

4. The Vautour IIN No. 61 made its first "official" flight, over Tel-Noff AB, May 9, 1958. The pilot was Ezra Aaharon. In this flight the navigator [ I. Erez ? ] photoed Tel-Noff AFB and Sqn. 119 aircraft and facilities.

5. Prior to the first public flight, a show for foreign military attaches took place at Hatzor. 4 Vautours A (only) were exhibited. The guides were Y. Agassi and E. Aharon. The location and the sole subtype were part of disinformation and censorship the Vautour was subjected to.

6. The official publication about the Vautours' presence (A only) was released in July 1958.




7. The Vautour was first exibited, in fligh, to the public on The IAF Day, August 12, 1958. Six Vautours IIA of Sqn. 110 flew over the ceremony site, Tel-Noff AFB, and Danni Shapira performed an aerobatics show.

8. The existence of the Vautours N and B had been kept secret for years, revealed only after the Six Days War. Foreign sources published consistently " the purchase of 25 " or "at least 20", or " 30 " Vautour A, to maintain one squadron ".



II. CONVERSIONS IN THE SQUADRONS


1) Till the arrival of the Vautours A to Ramat David, the first Sqn. 110 aircrew that been gathered since October 1957, were busy, in the meantime, in theoretical studies and also flew other types of jets, (as Mysteres, of the neighbouring 109 sqn. ) "to keep in shape".

1) As soon as the first Vautours arrived from storage, April 8th, a group of 6 pilots began flying the Vautour. This group included:
* [ Y. Agassi, Z. Tavor, R. Har-el, S. Ash, G.Magen, and G. Hitzki-Hadar ]

2) Three of the first group were sent to France, to ferry the last Vautours:
* [ June - July : Har-el and Ash, December : Tavor ].

3) The second batch of pilots converted to Vautour beginning May 1958, and possibly consisted of six more:
* [ M. (simi) Saar, O. Marom, M. Poraz, O. Einav, E. Bahat and Y. Shachar ].

By August 1958 almost all the 17 Vautours A had trained pilots.

4) The first IIB navigators were sent to France for conversion. Since the sole B to arrive, crashed in landing (July 26, 1958), there was no B variant for the purpose.
- The first were [ A. Los-Eyal, S. Kislev and U. Talmor ]
* For details see Conversion in France chapter.

5) In August 1958 pilots of Sqn. 119 came to "110" for conversion. The first of these were A. Tzivoni and O. Nachman.

6) Sqn. 119 began its crew trainings in June 1958. The crews, most of them operators of the Meteor N.F.13, studied the teamwork in Vautour N, instructed by the first pilots (Y. Tsiddon and E. Aharon) and navigators (E. Brosh and I. Erez).

7) Conversion of all-weather navigators was then established, consisting of a preliminary training on Meteor-7 (instruments and communication) and on the Meteor-13 (night navigation and procedures). Only afterwards took place the joint pilot-navigator training on the Vautour N (radar search, navigation, targets identification and finally the joint operation of the fire system (radar - guns).

8) In October 1958 Sqn. 119 operated with:
-Pilots: Y Chatto-Tsiddon, E. Aharon, A. Tzivoni, O. Nachman, M. Livne, S. Amiran, D. Kriger.
-Navigators: E. Brosh, I. Erez, O, Erez, G. Bar-nir, M. Ramati, A. Tsfadia, U. Ofer, B. Ashkenazy, M. Pundak.

9) More pilots and navigators joined Sqn. 119 in April 1959.





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[ THIS CHAPTER IS STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION ]

    @ To be added :
  • Training - attack, a-a battle.
  • Common technical malfunctions & solutions
  • Maintenance difficulties and serviceability


This page was last updated: May 18, 2002


THE IAF METEORS

The service of the Vautour is closely related to the Meteors. The Meteors were used for the two-engined jets conversion, for crew training and as target tugs. Both Vautour squadrons used Meteors from the very start. sqn. 117 (then an OTU unit, under the FTS direction), supplied the trainers on a shift basis. The night Meteors, N.F.13, were used in sqn. 119 for the pilot-navigator team work.

33 Meteors entered the IAF service:

F.8 - 11 (arrived 1953-1954)
FR.9 - 7 (arrived 1955, only two retained photo capability)
N.F.13 - 5 (3 arrived before the Sinai Campaign, 2 in 1958, the 6th was lost on its way)
T.7 - 6 (arrived 1953 - 1955, of which two converted to photo-reconnaissance)
T."8" - 4 (arrived 1957 - 1958)
  • The Meteors served with Sqn, 117, since 1953 (all day subtypes) and with Sqn. 119 (N.F.13, since 1956).
  • In 1954 a PR flight no. 115 (from 1956 - organized as a squadron) was established, with 3 Mosquito PR.16 and 2 converted Meteor T.7. These Meteors were returned to 117 sqn. in 1958.
  • Sqn. 117 reformed to Mirage in 1962, and its Meteors were reassigned to Sqn. 107.
  • The N.F.13 retired July 1963, when 119 sqn. transferred its Vautours IINs to sqn. 110.
  • From 1964 onwards all the Meteors were concentrated in sqn. 110. These contimue as trainers and target tugs, till finally withdrawn by 1970.


THE SQUADRONS IAF VAUTOURS CONTENTS IMPROVEMENTS & UPGRADES


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this paragraph (Meteors) was last update: June 28, 2001