The French modified Vampire - Sud-Est SE.535 Mistral

Suggestions Aircraft
1
[Would you like to see this in-game?]
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I suggest a nice line-up filler for Rank V of the French aviation tech tree : the French unique modification of the Vampire, the Sud-Est SE 535 “Mistral”.

It is an evolution of the De Havilland DH.100 Vampire Mk 5, the very first jet of the French Air Force. The SE.535 Mistral was built in Marignane between 1951 and 1953. Its reactor, manufactured under license, developed more thrust than the De Havilland Goblin. From number 98, the plane is equipped with an ejection seat. The 247 Mistrals built equipped the Air Force between 1952 and 1961. They were used in particular in Algeria for ground attack.

Like late De Havilland Vampires, this plane also used the Rolls Royce Nene engine, although built by Hispano-Suiza. The key difference between classic Vampires and the SE.535 are intakes. It was discovered that the air intakes were inadequate, and therefore these were extensively re-designed after research conducted by Rolls-Royce, Boulton & Paul, de Havilland and SNCASE. A considerably improved performance resulted from the new intakes, notably a 65% improvement in the initial rate of climb, and a top speed of 574 m.p.h. with the Hispano-Suiza built Nene 102B, making it the fastest of all Vampires.

Other vampires have belly intakes and original sized wing-root intakes, the SE.535 has no belly intakes but larger wing-root intakes. The only identical units between the two aircraft were the forward part of the fuselage, the tailplane and the booms. The enlargement of the air intakes for the Nene allowed the fitment of flexible fuel tank. In fact the whole fuel system had to be redesigned so that there were 15 tanks around the aircraft against nine in the Vampire FB Mk.5.

Stats :

-Engine: 22.24kN Nene 104 (Hispano- Suiza-built) (5,000lb)
Span: 11.58m (38ft)
-Length: 9.37m (30ft 9in)
-Height: 2.69m (8ft 10in)
-Wing Area: 24.34m^2 (262 sq/ft)
-Weight: 3,472.70kg (7,656lb)
-AUW (All-up Weight): 5,727.96kg (12,628lb)
-Max Speed: 930.20km/h (578 mph) at sea level (According to “Postwar Military Aircraft: 5; De Havilland Vampire, Venom and Sea Vixen” by Philip Birtles)
-Ceiling: 13,411.2m (44,000ft)
-Range: 1,963km (1,220 miles)

Possible suspended armement :

-4x HVARS

-4xT10 rockets

-2x 450kg (1000lbs) bombs.

Internal armement consists of four 20mm Hispano-Suiza canons.

Some pictures of a remaining Mistral at Musée de l’air et de l’espace :

Sources :

-“Postwar Military Aircraft: 5; De Havilland Vampire, Venom and Sea Vixen” by Philip Birtles

-“Warpaint Series No.27; de Havilland Vampire” by W.A. Harrison

-“Osprey Aircram Aviation Series No.33 - de Havilland Vampire F1-T55 in RAF - FAA - RAAF - RNZAF - SAAF - RCAF & Foreign service”

-“Aeroplane Icons: Vampire, de Havilland’s twin boomed ground-attack jet fighter”

-“101 Great Fighters” edited by Robert Jackson

5 Likes
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Additional pictures :
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2 Likes
3

A +1 from me, would be neat to see in the tree as filler

1 Like
4

yes gib i like this

1 Like
5

I don’t understand why it’s not in the tech tree yet. It’s kinda a copy paste and a unique aircraft at the same time. And France need rank V jet.

10 Likes
6

Finally a vampire somewhat worth its rating.

5 Likes
7

Sounds like a beast.

8

We absolutely need this, the french rank 5 is pretty lacking and has a lot of potential

5 Likes
9

Given that the latest additions to the French tree have been particularly disappointing and relied heavily on Benelux copy-pasting, I wanted to point out that this aircraft—mass-produced and widely used by the French military—is still missing from the game. Yet, it should be easy to model and would expand the options at Rank V, an area that is currently underdeveloped in the French tree.

5 Likes
10

Yeah, it’s a shame how empty middle ranks are for France air, while we could get really cool planes like the Mistral and Aquilon

3 Likes
11

Indeed, especially when those two are production planes and unique modifications!

1 Like
12

Yeah, and those aren’t even hard to make since they’re derivatives of planes already in the game. But we’re gonna get another F-16 I get

3 Likes
13

I would very much like to see this and the Aquilon make it to the game.

3 Likes
14

Has different engine intakes and a much more powerful engine. Thus, it would require some actual modeling effort (flight model and damage model) rather than 99% copy-and-paste.

That’s why we haven’t seen it yet…

15

Well, it certainly would be nice to see but it would also be added in the the 8.0-8.7 bracket, a space that already has a lot of homemade solutions.

I think the first priority would be to try and fill the 6.7-7.3 gap with less developped designs, like the VG 90 for example.

1 Like