French TextDesigned in response to the official 1953 program planned to equip the Armée de l’Air with a light supersonic interceptor, the Mirage III is universally acknowledged as one of the most remarkable successes of the French post-war aircraft industry. This delta-winged fighter has a configuration which has since become the hallmark of the French aircraft builder, Dassault, and has rapidly demonstrated its qualities beyond its original frontiers, so much so that 1 400 examples of all variants came off the production lines, purchased by twenty or so countries. This very broad subject has been split into two distinct parts, the first volume dealing with the initial single-seat IIIC and two-seat IIIB versions equipped with the Atar 9B jet engine and the second deals with the improved versions of the fighter with a longer fuselage, powered by an Atar 9C and fitted with a more effective Doppler radar: the IIIE interceptor, the IIIR and RD reconnaissance versions, the 5 and 50 ground attack versions. In line with the name and aim of the collection only the planes used by the Armée de l’Air are described in these books.
