Dassault Albatros

[Deltafan]

Hi,

from the French magazine Le Fana de l'Aviation for the month of April (free Facebook page of the magazine):

The Dassault Albatros

In the heart of the radioactive clouds

Here is a discovery in confidential archives, the amazing Dassault Albatros. With its large wings to fly at high altitude, it had to participate in French nuclear tests and take samples from the heart of radioactive clouds.

His frame was close to the Mystère family. Several engines were considered.

 

[Deltafan]

Warning ! I suddenly remember that Le Fana is an April Fool's specialist !

Maybe this topic will disappear in a few days... to go, as a post, in the "Theoretical, Fake and Generic Projects" forum part...

 

[Archibald]

Bloody freakkin' hell. Here comes the French U2. Derived from a Mystere / Etendard, the same way Lockheed derived the U2 from the F-104 main body.

Un-be-lie-va-ble.

EDIT: hilarious. Smells like rotten fish.

 

[Deleted member 2278]

Fake or real, that is a gorgeous illustration!

 

[Deltafan]

On a French forum, according to Frederic Marsaly, French author who works in Le Fana, the Dassault Albatros would not be a fake.

If our SPF forumer MIRAGE 4000, who knows Le Fana very well , could confirm

 

[Archibald]

Poisson d'avril ou pas, that thing uncannily looks like a U-2...

 

[TomcatViP]

And its pilot would look like a momified canned sardine.
5 to 10 hours inside the cockpit of an Etendard wearing an high altitude flight suit... Think about it!

(that's probably where stands your April's fool fish)

 

[Archibald]

The U-2 cockpit was pretty horrible too, you know.

 

[TomcatViP]

View: https://youtu.be/KnMf6nal0jc


Vs

https://m.facebook.com/avialogs/videos/super-etendard-carrier-landing-from-the-cockpit/10150737840654969/

None of them are the Ritz. But still...

 

[MIRAGE 4000]

Dear friends. 15 years after the article on the Dassault Mach 3/Mach 4 fighters, I'm proud to present a new, totally unknown project. It resembles a fish and yet it is not a fish. The Dassault Albatros is truthful. The 3-view plan is in the article...hope you like it. I have other "unknown projects" in store ... The Fana has not finished surprising you

 

[Deltafan]

On a French forum, according to Frederic Marsaly, French author who works in Le Fana, the Dassault Albatros would not be a fake.

If our SPF forumer MIRAGE 4000, who knows Le Fana very well , could confirm

Dear friends. 15 years after the article on the Dassault Mach 3/Mach 4 fighters, I'm proud to present a new, totally unknown project. It resembles a fish and yet it is not a fish. The Dassault Albatros is truthful. The 3-view plan is in the article...hope you like it. I have other "unknown projects" in store ... The Fana has not finished surprising you

Thanks a lot for your answer

 

[royabulgaf]

Poisson d'avril ou pas, that thing uncannily looks like a U-2...

Yeah, like a U-2 forward of the wing leading edge.

 

[Agent A]

Made me think about the Gloster Meteor PR19.

 

[LGSAdeptusAeronauticus]

French try to make U-2 equivlalent?

 

[Deltafan]

From Julien Lepelletier (who drew the Dassault Albatros in this issue of Le Fana), on a French website (the two-view drawing is from Dassault archives):

 

[Manuducati]

From Julien Lepelletier Art Page on Facebook.

 

[Archibald]

I feel like a kid on Christmas day !

 

[Michel Van]

Why do i have impression that they took a Étendard and stretch it on a torture rack ?
Sad they not build it

 

[littlebit]

Well, I’ll be darned. Beautiful illustration and a beautiful bird… that cockpit squeeze though ! Reminds me a lot of the U2, but that rear half brings it into its own league… amazing stuff! Heck of a mission plan too… nuclear testing and flying through the fallout???? Squeezed like a sardine while getting microwaved…

 

[H_K]

What was the engine? Atar 8B same as the Etendard IV?

 

[archipeppe]

Cool!!!
How to say "Dragon Lady" in French?

 

[Archibald]

Cool!!!
How to say "Dragon Lady" in French?

"Madame Dragon" - or "dragonne".

Dragonne (Shrek)

Dragonne est un personnage de soutien dans la franchise de DreamWorks Animations, Shrek. C'était autrefois le dragon qui surveillait la tour où était emprisonnée la princesse Fiona. Elle a ensuite fait la rencontre de l'Âne dont elle est tombée amoureuse et est devenu sa femme. Elle est...

heros.fandom.com

 

[archipeppe]

Merci beacoup Archibald...

 

[Petrus]

Made me think about the Gloster Meteor PR19.

Don't forget the Meteor PR.29 from Down Under .

 

[fightingirish]

From Julien Lepelletier (who drew the Dassault Albatros in this issue of Le Fana), on a French website (the two-view drawing is from Dassault archives):

[...]

Here some information from the magazine article.
The 3-view-plan of the Dassault "Albatros" project is from August 1971.
The aircraft would have been about 16m long with a 25m wingspan.
The one version shown here was equipped with a Snecma "ATAR" 8K50 engine.
It was also planend to install two civilian (aka cheaper) Snecma/Rolls-Royce M45H engines, each of them in one nacelle over the wing, just like as on the VFW-614.
The cockpit was shielded with 300kg lead.
Two other jet engines options, the 9k50 and M53, were also studied. However, since these engines were optimized for supersonic jets, they did not seem to be very well suited for this task.
The different versions of the Albatross would have carried the Matra 536, 537 or 638 missiles, which could take samples from the radioactive clouds.
The Dassault "Albatros" project was abandoned in 1974, when France stopped testing nuclear weapons in the atmosphere.

 

[kaiserbill]

Is there any info on expected flight range and altitude?

 

[NoBarrelRolls]

Related to this, found a video of a Vautour firing a Matra 537 missile during one of the test. There is also a brief interview with one of the pilots.



https://mediaclip.ina.fr/fr/i210270...e-vautour-pendant-une-explosion-atomique.html

 

[thefrecklepuny]

L'eu 2

I'll get my coat!

 

[robunos]

Where's Laverdure ?

cheers,
Robin.

 

[Trident]

There's a second missile type with a different forebody configuration shown moments earlier:



Clearly has an air sampling role with a sort of annular air in- and outlet.

ETA: ... and at least the colour scheme differs from the others in the missile seen during the interview:



So possibly we have imagery of all 3 types?