- Yes
- No
‘City of Hobart’ - RAAF Mirage IIIC with a Rolls Royce Avon engine.
Introduction and History
The Rolls Royce Avon was among the greatest of the early cold war jet engines, powering subsonic fighters and strike aircraft like the Swift and Scimitar, long range bombers such as the Canberra, and high-performance fighter-interceptors like the Swedish Draken.
The Australians were highly familiar with the Avon, converting their license produced F-86 Sabres into the CAC Sabre by incorporating the Avon engine. Because of their familiarity with the tooling, operation, and maintenance with this engine, when RAAF was purchasing the Dassualt Mirage III, they were offered the choice between the French Atar 9C engine and the Rolls Royce Avon. Aside from Australia’s familiarity with the Avon engine, French representatives doubted Australia’s willingness to buy an aircraft without a major British component.
As such, this modification was seen as critical to the sale of the aircraft. Australian representatives were told that the modified airframe would be ready in 28 days, a deadline that was reached, a considerably impressive feat for such a major modification. The airframe in question was converted from a Mirage IIIC and christened ‘City of Hobart’.
Static engine tests began on February 7th 1961, and test flights started on February 13th. By early May, it was concluded that the low altitude advantages of the Avon engine were not a significant improvement, and it was actually a hindrance at higher altitudes (above 40 000ft), although the Avon engine was able to achieve higher speeds below 45 000ft. However, the Atar engine was lighter, cheaper, and subjectively easier to manufacture and service. As well as this, no other prospective purchasers were interested in Avon powered Mirage IIIs.
On the basis of cost and simplicity, no further airframes were converted, and RAAF Mirage IIIs were purchased with the French Atar engines. ‘City of Hobart’ was converted into a prototype Mirage IIIE, the version on which Australia’s aircrafts would be based.
Specifications
Spoiler
Dimensions: Length 15.03 m (49ft 4in); wingspan 8.22 m (27 ft); height 4.5 m (14ft 9in).
Weight: Approximately 7049kg (empty), 13699kg (max)
Engine: Rolls Royce Avon Mk67 (RB146)
Thrust: 12,500lbs static thrust, 16000lbs with reheat
Maximum Speed: Approximately Mach 2.2 at 35,000ft, exceeding Mach 1.14 at sea level.
Max altitude: 55,000ft
Cannons: 2x30mm DEFA, 125 RPG
Missiles: One Matra R530 and either two Sidewinder AIM-9B or two Matra R550 Magic air-to-air missiles
Ordnance: Six Mk 82 227 kg (500 lb) bombs or three GBU-12 laser-guided bombs.
Images
Sources
Spoiler
The RAAF Mirage Story - Wing Commander M.R. Susans, pp. 1-17 (available here) - M.R. Susans oversaw the procurement of the Mirage III for the RAAF
A3 - Dassualt Mirage III - Royal Australian Air Force, pp. 419 (available here)
RAAF Museum: RAAF Aircraft Series 3 A3 Mirage III
The Aeroplane and Astronautics, May 25, 1961 - compiled in The Aeroplane and Commercial Aviation News, 1966, pp. 586-587