Dassault Mirage III variant
Dassault Mirage III Mirage IIIB
Two-seat trainer version derived from the IIIA, with the fuselage lengthened by 58 cm for the second tandem seat under a single canopy, without gun-ranging radar, cannon or provision for the auxiliary rocket. The prototype flew on 20 October 1959; it was followed by 26 production aircraft to the IIIC standard for the Armée de l'Air plus one for the CEV test centre. It gave rise to numerous training and test sub-versions (IIIB-1, IIIB-2(RV), IIIBE) and to export variants identified by a country letter.
- October 20, 1959
- First flight
- 27
- Units built
History
The Mirage IIIB is Dassault's answer to a need evident in any supersonic fighter programme: a two-seat transition and training aircraft before letting pilots loose in the single-seat combat version. Starting from the IIIA airframe, the fuselage was lengthened by 58 centimetres to fit a second tandem seat under a single continuous glazed canopy; in exchange for space for the instructor, the IIIB dispensed with the gun-ranging radar, the cannon and the provision for the SEPR auxiliary rocket carried by the single-seat fighter.
The prototype, built on the IIIA airframe, made its first flight on 20 October 1959. Series production, by then based on the IIIC's aerodynamic standard, ran to 26 aircraft for the Armée de l'Air plus a twenty-seventh delivered to the Centre d'essais en vol (CEV), the French state flight-test centre, totalling 27 production units. When the Mirage IIIE entered service, with its more complete navigation avionics, the IIIB was superseded on the production line by the Mirage IIIBE, fitted with the IIIE's navigation radar but still lacking gun-ranging radar; the latter is recognisable externally by its pointed nose, unlike the blunter nose of the original IIIB.
Two specific test sub-versions were also developed on the IIIB airframe for the Armée de l'Air: the Mirage IIIB-1, dedicated to flight trials, of which five were built, and the Mirage IIIB-2(RV), an in-flight refuelling trainer for the Mirage IV bomber force, fitted with a simulated (non-functional) refuelling probe in the nose, of which ten were built.
The two-seat trainer also became the basis for numerous export variants tailored to each foreign customer, identified by a country letter after the B: the Mirage IIIBJ for Israel, the IIIBZ for South Africa, the IIIBS for Switzerland or the IIIBL for Lebanon, among others, each with its own operational history described in its own entry. The IIIBE version, a direct evolution of the IIIB with navigation radar, in turn became the basis for the Mirage IIID export trainer, used by customers such as Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Pakistan or South Africa under their own D-derived designations.