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RIGHT Internationa/, 24 April 1975

HE

ISRAEL

AIRCRAFT

INDUSTRIES

Kfir (Hebrew for Lion Cub) was

unveiled on April 14 at the
company's plant at Lod Airport (see
also photograph, World News). The aircraft is based on the Dassault Mirage
airframe but has a single General
Electric J79 engine, believed to be the
-17 version which produces 17,9001b
of thrust with afterburning. This compares with 13,2001b thrust with afterburning for the Mirage IIICJ's
Snecma Atar 9C.
The existence of a J79-powered
Mirage in Israel has been postulated
for a number of years, with most of
the world's Press calling the project
Barak (Lightning). It was only in
January (see Flight for January 23,
page 96) that we exclusively recorded
that Israel Aircraft Industries had
told Flight that no project called
Barak existed in the company. It was
freely admitted though that J79s had
been fitted to Mirages, with intake
and cooling problems resulting. What
appears to be an afterburner cooling
duct is clearly visible at the fin root
in the photographs of Kfir, and the
intake, although very similar to that
of the Mirage, is slightly larger.
What is also evident from the
photographs is the fact that the J79
is a fraction over 2ft shorter than
the Atar and the Kfir is as a result
very squarely cut off at the tail end
with virtually no nozzle protruding
aft of the fuselage.
Although somewhat shorter than
the Atar 9C, the J79 has a very
similar diameter, slightly higher mass

Externally the Kfir resembles the Mirage 5

more than the Mirage IIIC which has served
Israel well for the past 10 years. It is not known
whether the aircraft shown were built entirely
from scratch by Israel Aircraft Industries or
whether they were "pre-production"
aircraft
heavily modified from original Mirage airframes. No production numbers or rates have
been announced

One of the two IAI Kfirs shown at Lod lifts off

(above) for a demonstration of flying qualities.
Clearly visible is what appears to be an afterburner cooling duct at the base of the fin,
presumably mounted so prominently to collect
as much air as possible while manoeuvring in
afterburner at high angles of attack

flow and approximately double the

overall pressure ratio. The American
engine also weighs a little more than
the French one. Reliability and
availability of spares for the J79 are
thought to be appreciably betterindeed this was one of the primary
reasons for the re-engining in the
first place. The spares holding for the
J79-powered F-4 Phantoms must be
very considerable.
Specific fuel consumption of the
J79 is probably somewhat better than
that of the Atar but this is almost
certainly offset in the case of the
Kfir by the fact that the higher-rated
engine will burn a greater overall
amount. A little extra fuel capacity
may have been obtained by the small
stretch of the fuselage just aft of
the cockpit, first done by Dassault on
the Mirage HIE. It follows that the
interception and dash performance of
the Kfir is probably considerably better

than that of a standard Mirage, and

the thrust advantage more than balances the weight disadvantage thereby probably conferring a better overall power:weight ratio and dogfight
performance. Endurance, however,
may have been marginally reduced.
It was revealed during the demonstration of Kfir at Lod that its
claimed top speed is Mach 2-2-plus
and its stabilised ceiling for combat
purposes is more than 50,000ft.
Descriptive literature said, without
elaborating, that the aircraft had
multi-mode weapon-delivery systems.
It is thought that the flying-control
system is entirely Israeli-developed
fly-by-wire. The system is supplied by
MBT Weapon Systems and is based
on twin computers; it is known to
have been retrofitted to at least some
Mirage IIICJs.
According to the Israeli Defence
Minister, Mr Shimon Peres, the Kfir
is one of the cheapest modern combat aircraft in the world at approximately $4 million. About half this
amount, he said, was attributable to
development and labour costs.
IAI literature also made it clear
that the aircraft was designed for
air-to-surface as well as air-to-air
missions although performance ad-