10 best-looking French aircraft

We asked you to decide, and you did good

I asked readers of the Hush-Kit aviation site to vote for the 10 best-looking French aircraft (excluding international aircraft like Concorde). You voted in your thousands, and you have pretty marvellous taste. Prepare for a sumptuous feast of French beauty! Here we go…IN THE ORDER YOU CHOSE, THESE ARE THE AIRCRAFT YOU VOTED FOR

10. Dassault Falcon 20 ‘Le baiseur sexy’

The Falcon was initially known as the Dassault-Breguet Mystère 20, as the design was based on the Dassault Mystère IV fighter-bomber. The Mystère 20 took its first flight on 4 May 1963, which was even earlier than the famous US Lear Jet 23.

Lacking penetration in the potentially lucrative US market, Dassault partnered with American airline Pan Am to promote the aircraft. The Falcon 20 proved to be such a smash hit that it was in production until 1988 (totally winding down in 1991), by then superseded by more advanced Falcon family members.

Dassault Falcon 20

The eagle-eyed may recognise this aircraft from cinema and TV. The Falcon 20 has been featured in many movies, including Wall Street (1987), 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003), Snakes on a Plane (2006), as well as TV series, including the A-Team, The Man From U.N.C.L.E and The Bionic Woman.

An inherent weakness of small jets is their green credentials, so it was heartening when, in November 2012, a Falcon 20 became the first civilian jet to fly on 100% biofuel. An impressive total of close to 500 aircraft was created, forming the basis of the larger ongoing Falcon series.

9. Bréguet 1001 Taon ‘The Cursed Gadfly’

CREDIT: Breguet

The achingly beautiful Taon was submitted for the NATO Light Weight Strike Fighter competition in 1953. The Fiat G91 defeated the Taon (among other entrants), but France rarely took the results of NATO procurement contests seriously if it didn’t win them.

In the end, it didn’t order the G91- but neither did it opt for the Taon, and this promising type was cancelled. Before its demise, the aircraft set an international speed record for a 1,000 km closed circuit with a speed of 1,046.65 km/h (650.36 mph) on 25 April 1958. Four months later, it bettered this by 38mph.

Bréguet 1001 Taon

The Taon was petite and purposeful in shape, with a wingspan of only 6.8 m (22 ft 4 in) and a gross weight of 5,000 kg (11,023 lb). Power came from the Orpheus B.Or.3. The Taon’s distinctive jet intake design sat above the gunport; service aircraft would have been armed with four 12.7 mm (0.5 in) Colt-Browning machine-guns.

The Taon was far from a wasted effort, as it led to the larger twin-engined Breguet Br.121 concept, the basis of the SEPECAT Jaguar fighter-bomber. The Jaguar was produced from 1972 to 2008, and remains in service with the Indian Air Force.

8. Mirage III/5/50 ‘Le Triangle Immortel’

The triangular delta wing is strong, can carry a lot of fuel and is efficient for supersonic flight. French companies had been studying the delta for some time; in 1942 the Payen PA-22, with an unorthodox delta with straight wing large foreplanes flew, followed in 1954 by the Payen Pa 49 Katy.

The Mirage story began with the tiny MD.550 Mystère Delta, which flew in 1955, as a prototype for a mixed-propulsion (jet and rocket) light fighter. This proved too small, leading to the scaled-up Mirage II and the even more ambitious Mirage III. The Mirage III first flew 17 November 1956 and entered service in 1961.

Mirage III/5/50

The Mirage III was not the first delta-winged warplane to enter service: the British Gloster Javelin (a tailed delta) entered service in February 1956, followed, in the same year, by the pure delta Convair F-102 Delta Dagger and Douglas F4D Skyray in April and the Avro Vulcan bomber in September.

The sharp, sleek Mirage, with its muscular semi-circular shock-cone inlets, was a thing of beauty. As well as being exceptionally beautiful, the Mirage repeatedly proved itself in combat. The III series grew with the 5 and 50, and proved a success with export customers.