Posted on 04/01/2016 8:07:07 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
A MIRAGE III fighter plane that was sold in an auction in Cannes went for €106,675 – to Serge Dassault, the billionaire industrialist and senator who is CEO of the firm that made it.
Estimated at €30-50,000, the plane was sold without its jet engines and weapons and it is in pieces with the cabin and wings dismantled. It was retired from military use in 1995 after being used in the Ardennes Squadron.
Mr Dassault, whose father Marcel founded the Dassault group of companies including Dassault Aviation, wants to display the plane on a roundabout in Corbeil-Essonne, of which he is a former mayor. The spot faces the premises of Snecma, builder of aircraft engines, which used to equip the Mirage III.
The current mayor backs the plan, saying it is a homage to the town’s industrial past, however an opposition councillor has said it is inappropriate to put a symbol of war on one of the largest roundabouts in the town.
Auction house Besch said around 15 people had expressed interest in the plane, including some artists who wanted to use it in art installations, a collector who wanted to put it in his garden in the south of France and a group of pilots.
The Mirage III was designed for attacking targets on the ground at low altitude and was designed to be able to carry tactical nuclear weapons. They were used from the 1960s to 90s and it was the first European fighter capable of exceeding Mach II in horizontal flight. -
See more at: http://connexionfrance.com/Mirage-III-fighter-plane-Cannes-auction-Besch-Dassault-17895-view-article.html#sthash.X7kqQm9r.dpuf
Cool. But I think one of those Czech tandem seat jet trainers might be a better buy in terms of usability and serviceability. Of course maybe this guy already has one of those.
TYPICAL LEFTY SOCIALIST COMPLAINING ABOUT NOT PUTTING a weapon of war in a roundabout! What does he think protected his sorry AZZ against aggressors of France? You can find a Patton tribute and a US 3rd Army Tank in roundabout of a city of Normandy.....I think its Carentan....but not sure...
It does not sound like it is flyable and the article say he want to install it as a monument in a roundabout.
It will look really nice as a trophy in front of the new mosque that the french will build for their new masters.
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While in high school one of my father’s pals who flew, came to visit us in his Mystere jet which was retired from the French military.
Small, fast and very cool. I recall it being not much bigger than a Piper Comanche. It had bench seats. Said he had 250k in radios. Canopy top.
I picked him up at the local airport.
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