Super Mystére / IAI Sa’ar

Special Hobby, 1/72 scale

Reviewed by John Miller

The Dassault Super Mystère is a French fighter-bomber and the first Western European supersonic aircraft to enter mass production. The aircraft served with the French Air Force until 1977 and saw action in the 1967 Six-Day War and the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

Design and Development

The Super Mystère represents the final step in evolution which began with the Dassault Ouragan and progressed through the Mystère II/III and Mystère IV. While earlier Mystère variants could attain supersonic speeds only in a dive, the Super Mystère could exceed the speed of sound in level flight. This was achieved thanks to the new thin wing with 45° of sweep (compared with 41° of sweep in the Mystère IV and only 33° in Mystère II) and the use of an afterburner-equipped turbojet engine.
 
The first prototype Super Mystère B.1, powered by a Rolls-Royce Avon RA.7R, took to the air on March 2, 1954. The aircraft broke the sound barrier in level flight the following day.

As the Super Mystère B.2, sometimes known as the SMB.2, the aircraft entered production in 1957. The production version differed from the prototype by having a more powerful Snecma Atar 101G engine. A total of 180 Super Mystère B.2s were built.
 
In 1958, two Super Mystère B.4 prototypes were built. Equipped with a new 48° swept wing and a more powerful Snecma Atar 9B engine, the aircraft were capable of Mach 1.4. Production never materialized because the faster Dassault Mirage III was entering service.

In 1973, the Israeli Air Force and Honduras Air Force upgraded their Super Mystère B.2s with a non-afterburning version of the Pratt & Whitney J52-P8A and new avionics. In Israeli service these upgraded SMB.2s were also known as the IAI Sa'ar (after a Hebrew word meaning “Storm").

Operational History

The Super Mystère served with the French Air Force until 1977 and saw action in the 1967 Six-Day War and the 1973 Yom Kippur War. They were well liked by the Israeli pilots and were a match for the Arab MiG-19 aircraft in air-to-air combat.
 
In 1976, Israel sold 12 complete airframes to Honduras. In 1979, Honduras purchased 4 more complete airframes, totaling 16 aircraft. They were involved in numerous border skirmishes with Sandinista Nicaragua and were finally withdrawn from service in 1996 and replaced by 12 Northrop F-5Es. The 11 surviving aircraft are for sale as surplus and 1 more is preserved at the Honduras Air Museum.
 
General Characteristics

            •           Crew: 1
            •           Length: 14.13 m (46 ft 4 in)
            •           Wingspan: 10.51 m (34 ft 6 in)
            •           Height: 4.6 m (15 ft 1 in)
            •           Wing area: 32 m2 (340 sq ft)
            •           Empty weight: 6,930 kg (15,278 lb)
            •           Gross weight: 9,000 kg (19,842 lb)
            •           Max takeoff weight: 10,000 kg (22,046 lb)
            •           Fuel capacity: 2,000 kg (4,409 lb)
            •           Powerplant: 1 × Snecma Atar 101G-2 afterburning turbojet engine, 33.3 kN (7,500 lbf) thrust dry, 44.1 kN (9,900 lbf) with afterburner

Performance
            •           Maximum speed: 1,195 km/h (743 mph, 645 kn) at 11,000 m (36,089 ft)
            •           Maximum speed: Mach 1.12
            •           Combat range: 870 km (540 mi, 470 nmi)
            •           Ferry range: 1,175 km (730 mi, 634 nmi)
            •           Service ceiling: 17,000 m (56,000 ft)
            •           Rate of climb: 89 m/s (17,500 ft/min)
            •           Wing loading: 281 kg/m2 (58 lb/sq ft)
            •           Thrust/weight: 0.5

Armament
            •           Guns: 2× 30 mm (1.18 in) DEFA 552 cannons with 150 rounds per gun
            •           Rockets: 2× Matra rocket pods with 18× SNEB 68 mm rockets each
            •           Missiles: 2× Rafael Shafrir AAMs; 2× AS-30L
            •           Bombs: 2,680 kg (5,000 lb) of payload on four external hardpoints, including a variety of bombs, reconnaissance pods or Drop tanks.

(Edited from Wikipedia)

This is a quality kit and what I’ve come to expect from this manufacturer. Some extra effort will be required for parts clean up and test-fitting but the surface details are crisp and scale appropriate. Parts layout and engineering are conventional and the parts count is relatively low suggesting this will be a straightforward build.

 
The build begins with series of sub-assemblies comprised of the intake trunking/nose wheel well, cockpit, engine, and main wheel wells. The 7-piece cockpit and 5-piece ejection seat are nicely detailed and will look very convincing when assembled. A crisply printed decal is provided for the instrument panel. In addition, the canopy can be posed closed or open to show off all that detail; nice. Once completed the sub-assemblies are captured between the fuselage halves and the builder is directed to begin assembly of the wings.

The wings, comprised of upper and lower halves, feature finely-rendered, scale-appropriate surface details that will look great under paint and a wash. The assembled wings join to the fuselage via keyed slots as do the and the single-piece horizontal stabilizer/elevators and vertical stabilizer/rudder. Neither the elevators or rudder are poseable.

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The crisply molded landing gear are next up in sequence. The nose and main wheels are all single parts as opposed to halves so there’ll be no annoying seams to deal with: nice. As with all the landing gear parts, the wheel well doors are nicely molded with detail on both the inner and outer surfaces.

The canopy parts are clear and crisply molded with scale-appropriate framing. As previously mentioned, the canopy can be posed open or closed. The open option incorporates a nicely molded rear hinge and braces for the canopy that will make the final assembly very convincing.

Some of the underwing stores provided are particular to the IAI Sa’ar. These include 100 and 250kg bombs, Napalm canisters, 625 and 1300L fuel tanks, and two Shafrir air-to-air missiles. A load-out diagram provides the possible combinations/positions as used on the Sa’ar. 

Marking Options:

The decals, printed by Cartograf, are crisply printed with good registration and color density.

Airframe stencil data and markings for three airframes are provided as follows:

• IAI Sa’ar, 096, No. 105 Scorpion (Ha’Akrav) Sin, Hatzor, Israel, 1973.

• Dassault Super Mystere B2, No. 09/909. This is the irst airframe re-engined with the US-built J52 jet engine (ex A-4 Skyhawk engine).

• IAI Sa’ar, 25, No. 105 Scorpion (Ha’Akrav) Sin, Hatzor, Israel, early 1970s.

The engineering and layout are conventional, the inscribed surface details are nicely rendered, and with relatively few parts, this should be straightforward build. To cap it off are quality decals by Cartograf. What’s not to like?   Highly recommended!

Now go paint something!                                                            

For more on this review visit Modelpaintsolutions.com.

Review kit provided by my retirement fund, again.

Review Text Copyright © 2020 by Model Paint Solutions
Page Created 1 October2020
Last updated 2 October, 2020

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