Famous European Aircraft - Sepecat Jaguar: A Development and Operational History

[overscan (PaulMM)]

Mr Jackson, I hope your new book is being well received. I notice that the originally posted front cover image had Famous British Aircraft in the upper left, with a muted Union Jack (e.g. see post #7 above), while the actual cover (and I am holding the book as I type this) has Famous European Aircraft, with a muted 12-star EU flag. A late change in marketing emphasis by Crecy Publishing? Or did a Frenchman see the original cover and complain?

Lots of people on the internet complained. In the case of Jaguar, the base design was by Breguet and it was a joint French/British development and saw service in both nation's air forces, so calling it British was a bit unfair.

 

[Hood]

Mr Jackson, I hope your new book is being well received. I notice that the originally posted front cover image had Famous British Aircraft in the upper left, with a muted Union Jack (e.g. see post #7 above), while the actual cover (and I am holding the book as I type this) has Famous European Aircraft, with a muted 12-star EU flag. A late change in marketing emphasis by Crecy Publishing? Or did a Frenchman see the original cover and complain?

Yes, the original cover mock-up was to be part of the Famous British Aircraft series. As Paul says, there was understandable reaction on the internet from all sides and my own unease at this idea, which I fed back to Crecy, who had already received direct comms on the issue.
There was a brief stage when it was Famous Anglo-French Aircraft with a muted Union Jack and Tricolour, this mock-up was also floating around the internet. This was an interim stage, Crecy for obvious reasons felt this was not a marketable series as such - it would be a very short series! Therefore the Famous European Aircraft series was born.
(Thankfully, given how emotive the EU flag is in some quarters of the UK, no adverse reaction has been received so far about using it on the cover.)

(And before anyone asks, no I'm not writing Tornado or Eurofighter to fill in the Famous European Series , although I suspect Crecy would welcome proposals from anyone who wanted to write those tomes.)

 

[Antonio]

Crecy would welcome proposals

That would be great because that aircraft include a lot of development with competing and related designs, as well as unbuilt versions.

 

[FighterJock]

Same thoughts here Antonio about possible Tornado and Typhoon books from Crecy's Famous European Aircraft series, no doubt it won't be too long before someone notices the new series and writes them.

 

[red admiral]

Famous but not so effective.
At the beginning it was a training jet, then moved to a ground attack one.
It was underpowered (at least the french ones) and the flight qualities not top.

It was definitely effective compared to contemporaries. And cheap.

 

[Owens Z]

Lots of people on the internet complained. In the case of Jaguar, the base design was by Breguet and it was a joint French/British development and saw service in both nation's air forces, so calling it British was a bit unfair.

Bill Gunston wrote that the base subsonic Breguet Br 121 design was jointly and laboriously worked into something like the BAC P.45 design (rather than logically starting with the P.45) not for aviation reasons but because a deferential UK wanted France (i.e. de Gaulle) to allow entry into the Common Market (Attack Aircraft of the West, 1974, pp108+). See your < https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/th...-107-vg-fighter-strike-trainer-projects.5574/ >. But of course I want to read James Jackson's own take on the Jaguar. My purchased copy of his new book is in the queue, but hasn't yet reached the top of my overweight to-read pile.

Yes, the original cover mock-up was to be part of the Famous British Aircraft series. As Paul says, there was understandable reaction on the internet from all sides and my own unease at this idea, which I fed back to Crecy, who had already received direct comms on the issue.
There was a brief stage when it was Famous Anglo-French Aircraft with a muted Union Jack and Tricolour, this mock-up was also floating around the internet. This was an interim stage, Crecy for obvious reasons felt this was not a marketable series as such - it would be a very short series! Therefore the Famous European Aircraft series was born. (Thankfully, given how emotive the EU flag is in some quarters of the UK, no adverse reaction has been received so far about using it on the cover.)

The late switch by the publisher was of course polite, factual, and proper.

 

[FighterJock]

And of course being Famous European Aircraft gives it a much wider scope to cover.

 

[BonPlan2]

From having a read through, I'm still wondering why Jaguar had two engines. Was there a requirement somewhere to use two engines, or Adour specifically?

From going through then all the ECAT/ECAP French concepts and almost all UK concepts were twin engine. Or was it simply that Adour was the best fit for the requirements (range) given it's lower sfc as a turbofan and the existing big turbofans (i.e. Spey Mk 200) were just too big and heavy?

for the same reason Alfa jet had 2 engines : reliability in school missions.

 

[red admiral]

for the same reason Alfa jet had 2 engines : reliability in school missions.

Maybe but strange that this doesn't seem to have been written down

On the UK side the advanced trainers before (Hunter) and after (Hawk) were both single engine.

I think it's more of being a gap in what engines are available. Earlier jets like Avon or Atar are too big and burn lots of fuel. Spey is also too big. Maybe a scaled down reheated Spey would be ok, but the timeline doesn't really work and it's already been scaled down once from Medway.

 

[Titus K]

A visit to the Jaguar M prototype with a former Dassault engineer (English subtitles available).
With a interesting anecdote at 9:45 about the throttle-able afterburner, notably used during aerial refueling.

View: https://youtu.be/R9VOwzwptXg?si=x7NkUP4-yRSnqwNQ&t=585

 

[FighterJock]

A good find Titus K. Just got the Jaguar book for my birthday today and a fascinating read it is too from what I have read so far.

 

[BonPlan2]

A visit to the Jaguar M prototype with a former Dassault engineer (English subtitles available).
With a interesting anecdote at 9:45 about the throttle-able afterburner, notably used during aerial refueling.

View: https://youtu.be/R9VOwzwptXg?si=x7NkUP4-yRSnqwNQ&t=585

I have another anectdote from a Saint Dizier Jaguar pilot himelf (the husband of one of my wife friend), at lest 30 years ago :
The french Jaguar were so tired, and specially the engines, that only with 2 external tanks load they have to use regularly but shortly the after burner to regain speed as the dry power wasn't enough to maintain speed...

 

[Archibald]

The Adour Mk.101 indeed made the Jaguar seriously underpowered, which was even more of a problem for the naval variant. So yes, modular reheat on Mk.102 was necessary and very useful.

A very stupid problem when aerial refueling a Jaguar was that the deployable boom was in the wrong place... ahead of an air intake, badly disturbing the air flow inside it. That made Jaguar aerial refuelings a little stressful, as the two engines could not have the same thrust.

The engine disturbed by the refueling boom had to be throttled down - so the other engine, undisturbed, needed modular afterburner to compensate. Dry power wouldn't be enough, as not only the Jaguar was underpowered, but it also became heavier and heavier as it sipped fuel !

Basically the Jaguar was aerial-refueling flying on one modular-afterburning engine; the other being throttled down to endure the air flow disturbed by the refueling boom.

The more kerosene pumped, the heavier the Jaguar, the more modular reheat on the undisturbed engine to keep on with the tanker !

What I never quite understood is why the french did not adopted the Mk.104 at the turn of the 1980's. No Mk.106, I can understand why : way too late, the Mirages F1CT and 2000D were already in the place. But the Adour Mk.104 would have been a reasonable and very useful upgrade: starting with Djibouti extremely hot climate. Dragging very heavy AS.37 Martel missiles, launched against Khaddafi air defenses in Tchad.