- Yes
- No
I would like to suggest a nice line-up filler for Rank V of the French aviation tech tree : the French unique modification of the Sea Venom, the Sud-Est SE 203 “Aquilon”. This plane served for several years the french army as the main carrier-borne fighter of the french navy. It is the missing link between the latest piston aircraft and the F8-E Crusader which served on French aircraft carriers.
After the failure of developing quickly a native jet design after the end of WW2, the French government acquired the license to produce the British Sea Venom in 1949. The production of these aircraft was given to the “Société Nationale de Construction Aéronautique du Sud-Est”, SNCASE. Several improvements occurred during the different batches of production in the following years :
- The first batch used British-made parts, and the plane was produced under the name of SE 201 “Aquilon”. (25 built)
- The second batch introduced an ejection seat and an american AN/APQ-65 radar, and fully used french made parts this time. The new denomination became : SE 202. (25 built)
- The last batch brought much more extensive modifications under the name of SE 203. This the one I am suggesting. The first big change is that this variant became a single-seat fighter, while all previous models were two seaters. Other improvements were a new all-weather AN/APQ-94 radar and the ability to fire Air-to-Surface and Air-to-Air guided missiles. This last variant offers the better performances but also is the most unique of all Aquilons. (40 built)
General characteristics
Crew: 1
Length: 11.20 m
Wingspan: 13.07 m
Height: 2.60 m
Wing area: 26 m2
Empty weight: 4450 kg
Max weight: 6800 kg
Powerplant: 1 × De Havilland (Fiat) Ghost 48, developing 2270 kg of thrust
Performance
Maximum speed: 1055 km/h (Mach 0.825) at sea level
Range: 450 km
Rate of climb: 16m/s from start to 12 000m
Service ceiling: 13,720 m
Armament
4 × 20 mm Hispano-Suiza Hispano Mk V cannon / M50 (150 rounds per gun)
air-to-surface suspended weaponry :
8 x 5" HVAR rocket or 8 x Matra T10 rocket or 2 x AS.30 Air-to-Surface missile or 2 x AS.20 Air-to-Surface missile or 900 kg of unspecified ordinance
Air-to-air suspended weaponry :
2 x AA.20 manually guided Air-to-air missile or 2 x R511 SARH Air-to-Air missile
Sources :
Armement et Ve République, fin des années 50 - fin des années 60 , Maurice Vaisse
Mon Chevalier du Ciel : Témoignage, Marianne Guillemin
