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I.A.I. F-21 Lion VF43 NAS Oceana 1986
The Israel Aircraft Industries Kfir is an Israeli-built all-weather, multi-role combat aircraft based on a modified Dassault Mirage 5 airframe, with Israeli avionics and an Israeli-made version of the General Electric J79 turbojet engine.The project that would ultimately give birth to the Kfir can be traced back to Israel's need for adapting the Dassault Mirage IIIC to the specific requirements of the Israeli Air Force (IAF).
The all-weather, delta-winged Mirage IIICJ was the first supersonic aircraft acquired by Israel, and constituted the backbone of the IAF during most of the 1960s, until the arrival of the A-4 Skyhawk and, most importantly, the F-4 Phantom II, by the end of the decade. While the Mirage IIICJ proved to be extremely effective in the air-superiority role, its relatively short range of action imposed some limitations on its usefulness as a ground-attack aircraft.
The development of this aircraft has been attributed to covert action on the part of Mossad. After General De Gaulle embargoed the sale of arms to Israel, the IAF feared that in the future it would no longer have an upper hand over its regional adversaries that were being re-equipped with more advanced Soviet aircraft. The bulk of the Israeli Airforce had been locked into the Mirage but was quickly facing problems because it had been severely depleted after the Six-Day war. They did not have a better alternative than the Mirage. Mossad was able to acquire the plans for the Mirage III, which were used directly in the design process of the Kfir aircraft series. In his book 'Mirage' James Follett explains how Daniel Kalen a former fighter pilot of the IAF independently embarked on a mission to acquire the Mirage blue prints from Switzerland's Sulzer Engineering Corporation. The mentioned company was building the Mirages in Switzerland under license from Dassault. On subsequently receiving help from his father Emil Kalen, the then Director of Mossad, Daniel along with other Mossad agents stole more than 250,000 blue prints of the Mirage weighing approximately 3 tons from the Luftech Corporation. Luftech had been sub-contracted by Sulzer to construct the drawings and prints of the aircraft.Everything right down to the instruction labels on an aircraft's fuselage was taken to Israel in what is known as the biggest espionage operation in history. In a few years time the Israelis had their own version of the Mirage, The kfir. The very first test flight was carried out by Daniel Kalen himself.
Two powerplants were initially selected for trials—the General Electric J79 turbojet and the Rolls-Royce Spey turbofan. In the end, the J79 was selected, not the least because it was the same engine used on the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II, which the Israelis began to acquire from the United States in 1969, along with a license to produce the J79 themselves. The J79 was clearly superior to the Atar 09, providing a dry thrust of 49 kN (11,000 lbf) and an afterburning thrust of 83.4 kN (18,750 lbf).
In order to accommodate the new powerplant on the Mirage III's airframe, and to deliver the added cooling required by the J79, the aircraft's rear fuselage was slightly shortened and widened, its air intakes were enlarged, and a large air inlet was installed at the base of the vertical stabilizer, so as to supply the extra cooling needed for the afterburner. The engine itself was encased in a titanium heatshield.
An improved prototype of the aircraft, with the name Ra'am ("Thunder"), made its first flight in June 1973. It had an extensively revised cockpit, a strengthened landing gear, and a considerable amount of Israeli-built avionics. The internal fuel tanks were slightly rearranged, their total capacity being increased to 713 gallons.
Twenty-five modified Kfir C.1s were leased to the US Navy and the US Marine Corps from 1985 to 1989, to act as adversary aircraft in dissimilar air combat training (DACT). These aircraft, designated F-21A Kfir, had narrow-span canard foreplanes and a single small rectangular strake on either side of the nose which considerably improved the aircraft's manoeuvrability, and handling at low speeds.
The 12 F-21 aircraft leased to the US Navy, painted in a three-tone blue-gray "ghost" scheme, were operated by VF-43, based at NAS Oceana. In 1988 they were returned and replaced by the F-16N. The 13 aircraft leased to the United States Marine Corps were operated by VMFT-401 at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma. In addition to the blue-gray painted aircraft, the USMC also had some F-21s painted in Israeli colors and desert "flogger" schemes. These aircraft were replaced by F-5Es when the F-21s were returned in 1989.
General characteristics: , Crew: One, Length: 15.65 m (51 ft 4.25 in), Wingspan: 8.21 m (26 ft 11.5 in), Height: 4.55 m (14 ft 11.5 in), Wing area: 34.80 m² (374.60 sq ft), Empty weight: 7,285 kg (16,060 lb), Loaded weight: 10,415 kg (22,961 lb), Max takeoff weight: 14,670 kg (32,340 lb), Powerplant: 1× IAl Bedek-built General Electric J-79-J1E turbojet, Dry thrust: 52.89 kN (11,890 lb st), Thrust with afterburner: 83.40 kN (18,750 lb st) Performance: Maximum speed: 2,440 km/h (1,516 mph), Range: 770 km (480 mi), Service ceiling 17,700 m (58,000 ft), Rate of climb: 233.3 m/s (45,930 ft/min). Armament: Guns: 2× Rafael-built 30 mm (1.18 in) DEFA 553 cannons, 140 rounds/gun, Rockets: assortment of unguided air-to-ground rockets including the Matra JL-100 drop tank/rocket pack, each with 19× SNEB 68 mm rockets and 66 US gallons (250 liters) of fuel, Missiles: 2× AIM-9 Sidewinders OR Python-series AAMs; 2× Shrike ARMs; 2× AGM-65 Maverick ASMs, Bombs: 13,415 lb (6,085 kg) of payload on five external hardpoints.
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