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Fascinating stuff chaps. I had not thought to include the civil side but in fact Air France did order the Comet 1 and the Caravelle had a comet style nose. Interestingly France did not go down the path of developing its own civilian airliners like the British, except for the lacklustre Dassault Mercure (thought this paved the way for French involvement in Airbus). France and Germany were more successful than the UK in developing their own transport aircraft, the Transall C 160 though France had to buy additional C130s like Britain. If France had had a more moderate ruler than Le Grand and if Marcel Dassault had not been so strong a personality, the actual aircraft builders seem to have worked okay together once the politics was out of the way. A more powerful longer range Mirage IV would have been an excellent Valiant replacement for the RAF NATO operational theatre role. If it had not been for Rolls Royce and BAC the UK might have been able to persuade the French and Germans to help develop a P1127 as a Hunter/Fiat G91 replacement. An Anglo French jet transport without the complicated bits could have been a Transall replacement in the early 70s.
Fascinating stuff chaps. I had not thought to include the civil side but in fact Air France did order the Comet 1 and the Caravelle had a comet style nose.
Interestingly France did not go down the path of developing its own civilian airliners like the British, except for the lacklustre Dassault Mercure (thought this paved the way for French involvement in Airbus).
France and Germany were more successful than the UK in developing their own transport aircraft, the Transall C 160 though France had to buy additional C130s like Britain.
If France had had a more moderate ruler than Le Grand and if Marcel Dassault had not been so strong a personality, the actual aircraft builders seem to have worked okay together once the politics was out of the way.
A more powerful longer range Mirage IV would have been an excellent Valiant replacement for the RAF NATO operational theatre role.
If it had not been for Rolls Royce and BAC the UK might have been able to persuade the French and Germans to help develop a P1127 as a Hunter/Fiat G91 replacement.
An Anglo French jet transport without the complicated bits could have been a Transall replacement in the early 70s.
