An estimated 80,000 spectators today watched an Israel Air Force exercise in which the Vautour, the newest French tactical light bomber in the Air Force, made its first public appearance in Israel.
Formation after formation of Air Force planes, from Piper Cubs to fighters and bombers carried out a series of exercises in blazing heat and a desert storm north of Beersheba. The participating aircraft included Harvard type training planes, Stearmans, Mustags, Meteors, Ouragans, Mysteres and Vautors.
Supplies were dropped from Dakotas and Nords. American Sikorski helicopters danced a “hora” in an air umbrella. The main attraction was a mock re-enactment of an air battle during the Sinai campaign in which two Israel Mysteres shot down two Egyptian MIGs. Ouragan planes took the role of the MIGs while two Mysteres jets came diving down to disperse them, “shooting down” the mock Egyptian aircraft.
Later the planes flew in a parade in formations of 10 to mark the tenth anniversary of Israel and 11 to greet the eleventh year of both the Jewish State and the existence of the Air Force. Military attaches invited to watch the performance actually saw the Vautour in action for the first time and called it a “first class bomber-fighter.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
