Book. “Mirage IV – Une épée pour la France”
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Éditions Casa
Here is a book for Mirage IV purists, written by one of their number, Hervé Beaumont, who has already written a seminal work on the same aircraft, published in 2003.
The first spearhead of the French nuclear deterrent force, the two-seater Dassault Mirage IV bomber entered into service in 1964, for a mission carried out alongside a Boeing C-135F tanker. While its appearance is similar to that of the Mirage III, it has the rare capability of flying at Mach 2 for around 30 minutes – more than its predecessor, which was a multirole aircraft. At the time, mass production required support from not only Dassault (Générale Aéronautique Marcel Dassault), but also some 300 other French companies.
“Mirage IV, le bombardier stratégique” (Mirage IV, the strategic bomber), by the same author, came out over twenty years ago and was a great success, with copies quickly selling out at sales outlets. In the two decades between the two books, Hervé Beaumont has collected a trove of documents (technical documents, documentation on the equipment and engine, first-hand accounts, photographs, illustrations, etc.) to embellish his presentation of France’s flagship military aircraft of the 1960s.
This has led to a real work of art, offering a detailed overview of the different versions of the bomber. And what is the result? A veritable encyclopedia of the Mirage IV in the form of a coffee table book, some 400 pages long. In other words, a new tribute to an iconic aircraft from the Dassault galaxy, with more than 60 fighters produced, it was retired from service in the mid-2000s.
Book. “Mirage IV – Une épée pour la France.” Author: Hervé Beaumont. Éditions Casa. EAN: 9782380583885
