Dassault Mirage F1, Warpaint Series No.142

By Andy Evans
Warpaint No.142

Dassault Mirage F1

By Andy Evans

During the 1960s, Dassault commenced development of what would be-come the Mirage F1 as a private venture, alongside the larger Mirage F2. Work on the F1 eventually took precedence over the more costly F2, which was cancelled during the late 1960s. The Armée de l'Air took great interest in the fledgling F1 to meet its requirement for an all-weather interceptor aircraft. The Mirage F1 was of similar size to the Mirage III and Mirage 5 and was powered by the same SNECMA Atar engine that had been used on the larg-er Dassault Mirage IV, however, unlike its predecessors, it had the layout of a swept wing, but mounted high on the fuselage, and a conventional tail sur-face as used by the F2. Although it had a smaller wingspan than the Mirage III, the Mirage F1 nevertheless proved to be superior to its predecessor, car-rying more fuel while possessing a shorter take-off run and greater manoeu-vrability. This latest addition to the Warpaint series includes all the usual ref-erence and historical material that has made the series the go-to source for modellers and aviation enthusiasts alike. This book is written by Andy Evans and is superbly illustrated by Sam Pearson.