Breguet Br.1001 Taon, a state of the art Cold War light fighter

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Breguet Br. 1001 Taon

A well made light fighter for NATO

About this aircraft and its interest in War Thunder

The French air tech tree certainly has its share of early cold war fighter, but there’s an untapped potential of aircrafts for this era that would be quite welcome in the game as a substitute for the habitual Sabre and Fiat G91. In mind comes this aircraft, rival of the G91 with exceptional performances at the time. I think it could be a wonderful addition to the early jet fights in the game.

About the Taon itself

The Breguet Taon was born when US officials, enthousiast after seeing the Folland Midge, got the idea to make a NATO competition to design a cheap, light fighter that could make short take-off and be easily repaired and maintained. It would be armed with four 12.7mm MGS, and would be able to carry bombs and rockets. Several well known designs were submitted for the competition, and in the end, only three finalists remained : The Fiat G91, the Étendard VI, and the Breguet Taon, placed first. The irony being, the man who started it all, Folland, had its aircraft, the Gnat, eliminated because of its exclusive interceptor role.

The Breguet Taon was a wonder at the time. Benefitting from exceptional performances thanks to an advanced design favoring high lift, it was able to retain speed and manoeuvrability despite a hefty fuselage and a reduced air foil. Equipped with an Orpheus engine, it was overhauled during the trials in order to benefit from Post Combustion, and it managed to break several times its own world record for sustained speed on 1000km. Its overall light weight allowed it a great autonomy, agility and speed, and proposed a multitude of unique innovation in aerodynamics and aircraft manufacturing that would benefit the French industry in the following years.

Nevertheless, the aircraft lost the competition to the Fiat G91, not so much because it was an inferior design, but because the US official had already declared the G91 victor before the end of the competition. Its design would nevertheless be improved, then used for the elaboration of a future anglo-french project known as the SEPECAT Jaguar. The prototype itself ended in a museum.

General Characteristics :

Empty Weight: 3 500 kg
Loaded Weight: 5 800 kg
Wingspan: 6,80 m
Length: 11,24 m
Height: 3,75 m
wing area: 13,70 m²
Engine: Bristol “Orpheus” B.Or.3 (2200 kgp).
Maximum Speed: 1 180 km/h at 4000 m

Armament : 4 x 12.7mm Colt-Browning Mgs
Bomb load : 2 x 250kg bombs or 2 x 68mm SNEB Rocket pods

Photos :





Sources :

Spoiler

Breguet Br.1001 (Taon) Lightweight Strike-Fighter Prototype
Breguet 1001 Taon
https://www.avionslegendaires.net/avion-militaire/breguet-br-1001-taon/
Le Breguet Br-1001 "Taon"

4 Likes
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I believe this suggestion was in the old forum. Now as then, this is a much needed addition to the French tech tree. +1

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There was a suggestion for the Taon, but it wasn’t from me. Nevertheless, I agree, it would be nice to see it in the game some day.

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This is anything but true. The G91 was an Italian project made by Fiat witouth any american interference. It was chosed only for it’s performance and not for anything else. Trust me when I Say that France used all it’s political influence to’ make the Breguet 1001 the winner since I read a lot of test about the competition, and all said that France tried whatever was possible for win It, but failed. (The french also cancelled theyr order for the G91 R2 Just because they Lost the competition).
As for the suggestion I agree that It Will be a good plane for the french tt at those br, but this section is just pure bias.

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Alright, I admit it was a bit of an exaggeration, and that I wrote it in a provocative manner, but still, it’s mostly true. Gabrielli’s design was heavily inspired by the F-86, and its simplified structure facilitated production and interoperability inside NATO. Those were the reasons why it seduced the US at the time, and I think saying otherwise would be bad faith.

And if it is true that France was the country that weighted in the most in this competition, mostly by proposing no less than 3 different aircrafts (Etendard VI, Taon and Baroudeur), It was not their decision to give the Taon first place during the qualifications.

In fact, the reason why France pulled out of the competition was precisely because they felt there was a clear bias in favor of the G91, and that their design and its performance would never have won anyway regardless of the results.

I’m not saying that the Taon was better than the G-91. Truth is, we’ll never know, these aircrafts never faced each other in combat and the Taon never even left the prototype stage. Just that in this particular competition, it wasn’t the Taon’s performances that condemned the plane, but a political choice.

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6

Could you verify the empty mass, 2.3t seems way to light and apart from you suggestion I can’t find this data.

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I took it from one of the sources I put in the suggestion but I was surprised as well and it might be a typo from the author. It’s likely a good ton higher. I’m gonna edit this, thabks for the heads up.

1 Like
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100% need this