AIR FAN 74 NAS MIRAMAR USN F-14 VF F-4 A-4 F-5 / MIRAGE IVA & IVP / INDOCHINA AU-1 14F

SINGLE ISSUE OF FRENCH LANGUAGE MAGAZINE OF MILITARY AVIATION / PHOTO CAPTIONS ARE ALSO PRESENTED IN ENGLISH

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FEATURED ARTICLES INCLUDE:

NAS MIRAMAR US NAVY FIGHTER TOWN (GRUMMAN F-14 TOMCAT VF-211 FIGHTING CHECKMATES, VF-24, VF-11, VF-51, VF-111 SUNDOWNERS, A-4 SKYHAWK, F-5E TIGER II, VC-13 FIGHTING SAINTS, VF-126 BANDITS, McD F-4S PHANTOM VF-301 VF-302, F-4N VF-154, E-2 HAWKEYE VAW-112, TA-4J SKYHAWK)

FRENCH AIR FORCE ARMEE de l’AIR STRATEGIC BOMBERS (MIRAGE IVA & IVP)

COLOMBIAN AIR FORCE FUERZA AEREA COLOMBIANA

NATO TACTICAL AIR MEET 1984 (GERMAN LUFTWAFFE F-4F PHANTOM, USAF F-15 EAGLE, RAF PHANTOM FGR.2, FRENCH MIRAGE IIIRD

FRENCH NAVY AERONAVALE VOUGHT F4U AU-1 CORSAIR FLOTILLE 14F – THE END OF THE WAR IN INDOCHINA

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Additional Information from Internet Encyclopedia

French Navy Aéronavale

After the war, the French Navy had an urgent requirement for a powerful carrier-borne close-air support aircraft to operate from the French Navy's four aircraft carriers that it acquired in the late 1940s (Two former U.S. Navy and two Royal Navy carriers were transferred). Secondhand US Navy Douglas SBD Dauntless dive-bombers of Flotille 3F and 4F were used to attack enemy targets and support ground forces in the First Indochina War. Former US Grumman F6F-5 Hellcats and Curtiss SB2C Helldivers were also used for close air support. A new and more capable aircraft was needed.

First Indochina War

The last production Corsair was the 'F4U-7, which was built specifically for the French naval air arm, the Aéronavale. The XF4U-7 prototype did its test flight on 2 July 1952 with a total of 94 F4U-7s built for the French Navy's Aéronavale (79 in 1952, 15 in 1953), with the last of the batch, the final Corsair built, rolled out on 31 January 1953. The F4U-7s were actually purchased by the U.S. Navy and passed on to the Aéronavale through the U.S. Military Assistance Program (MAP). The French Navy used its F4U-7s during the second half of the First Indochina War in the 1950s (12.F, 14.F, 15.F Flotillas),[1] where they were supplemented by at least 25 ex-USMC AU-1s passed on to the French in 1954, after the end of the Korean War.

On 15 January 1953, Flotille 14F, based at Karouba Air Base near Bizerte in Tunisia, became the first Aéronavale unit to receive the F4U-7 Corsair. Flotille 14F pilots arrived at Da Nang on 17 April 1954, but without their aircraft. The next day, the carrier USS Saipan delivered 25 war-weary ground attack ex-USMC AU-1 Corsairs[105] (flown by VMA-212 at the end of the Korean War). During three months operating over Dien Bien Phu and Viêt-Nam, the Corsairs flew 959 combat sorties totaling 1,335 flight hours. They dropped some 700 tons of bombs and fired more than 300 rockets and 70,000 20 mm rounds. Six aircraft were damaged and two shot down by Viet Minh.

In September 1954, F4U-7 Corsairs were loaded aboard Dixmude and brought back to France in November. The surviving Ex-USMC AU-1s were taken to the Philippines and returned to the U.S. Navy. In 1956, Flotille 15F returned to South Vietnam, equipped with F4U-7 Corsairs.

Suez Crisis

The 14.F and 15.F Flotillas also took part in the Anglo-French-Israeli seizure of the Suez Canal in October 1956, code-named Operation Musketeer. The Corsairs were painted with yellow and black recognition stripes for this operation. They were tasked with destroying Egyptian Navy ships at Alexandria but the presence of U.S. Navy ships prevented the successful completion of the mission. On 3 November 16 F4U-7s attacked airfields in the Delta, with one Corsair shot down by anti-aircraft fire. Two more Corsairs were damaged when landing back on the carriers. The Corsairs engaged in Operation Musketeer dropped a total of 25 tons of bombs, and fired more than 500 rockets and 16,000 20mm rounds.

Algerian War

As soon as they disembarked from the carriers that took part in Operation Musketeer, at the end of 1956, all three Corsair Flotillas moved to Telergma and Oran airfields in Algeria from where they provided CAS and helicopter escort. They were joined by the new "Flottille 17F", established at Hyères in April 1958.

French F4U-7 Corsairs (with some borrowed AU-1s) of the 12F, 14F, 15F, and 17F Flotillas conducted missions during the Algerian War between 1955 and 1962. Between February and March 1958, several strikes and CAS missions were launched from Bois Belleau, the only carrier involved in the Algeria War.

Tunisia

France recognized Tunisian independence and sovereignty in 1956 but continued to station military forces at Bizerte and planned to extend the airbase. In 1961, Tunisia asked France to evacuate the base. Tunisia imposed a blockade on the base on 17 July, hoping to force its evacuation. This resulted in a battle between militiamen and the French military which lasted three days. French paratroopers, escorted by Corsairs of the 12F and 17F Flotillas, were dropped to reinforce the base and the Aéronavale launched air strikes on Tunisian troops and vehicles between 19–21 July, carrying out more than 150 sorties. Three Corsairs were damaged by ground fire.

French experiments

In early 1959, the Aéronavale experimented with the Vietnam War-era SS.11 wire-guided anti-tank missile on F4U-7 Corsairs. The 12.F pilots trained for this experimental program were required to manually pilot the missile at approximatively two kilometers from the target on low altitude with a joystick using the right hand while keeping track of a flare on its tail, and piloting the aircraft using the left hand; an exercise that could be very tricky in a single-seat aircraft under combat conditions. Despite reportedly effective results during the tests, this armament was not used with Corsairs during the ongoing Algerian War.

The Aéronavale used 163 Corsairs (94 F4U-7s and 69 AU-1s), the last of them used by the Cuers-based 14.F Flotilla were out of service by September 1964,[1] with some surviving for museum display or as civilian warbirds. By the early 1960s, two new modern aircraft carriers, Clemenceau and Foch, had entered service with the French Navy and with them a new generation of jet-powered combat aircraft.