Jacqueline Auriol, 1956. (Association Amicale des Essais en Vol/CEV Brétigny)
14 June 1963: Jacqueline Marie-Thérèse Suzanne Douet Auriol flew an Avions Marcel Dassault Mirage III R (nº 307) over a 100 kilometer course near Istres, France, at an average of 2,038.70 kilometers per hour (1,266.79 miles per hour), setting a Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) world speed record.¹
Mme. Auriol broke the record set six weeks earlier by Jackie Cochran in a Lockheed TF-104G Starfighter. ²
Jacqueline Auriol (1917-2000), aviatrice française. Remise du Record international féminin (14 juin 1963) par Jacques Allez, directeur de l’Aéroclub de France. Paris, janvier 1964.
The Mirage III R is a single seat, single-engine, supersonic all-weather reconnaissance variant of the Mirage IIIE delta-winged fighter. The nose is modified to carry five cameras. Radar and weapons were deleted.
The Avions Marcel Dassault Mirage IIIE was 15,04 meters (49 feet, 4⅛ inches) long with a wingspan of 8,22 meters (26 feet, 11⅔ inches) and height of 4,45 meters (14 feet, 7⅕ inches). The interceptor’s empty weight was 7,050 kilograms (15,543 pounds), and maximum takeoff weight was 13,700 kilograms (30,203 pounds).
Dassault Mirage IIIE three-view illustration with dimensions. (Avions Marcel Dassault)
The aircraft flown by Jacqueline Auriol was powered by a Société nationale d’études et de construction de moteurs d’aviation (SNECMA) Atar 09C single shaft, axial-flow turbo-réacteur (turbojet engine) with afterburner. The engine used a 9-stage compressor section and 2-stage turbine. It was rated at 9,430 pounds of thrust (41.947 kilonewtons), and 13,669 pounds (60.803 kilonewtons) with afterburner. The Atar 09C was 5.900 meters (19 feet, 4.28 inches) long, 1.000 meters (3 feet, 3.37 inches) in diameter and weighed 1,456 kilograms (3,210 pounds).
The Dassault Mirage IIIE had a maximum speed of 2,350 kilometers per hour (1,460 miles per hour). Its service ceiling was 17,000 meters (55,774 feet), and its combat range was range 1,200 kilometers (746 miles).
Jacqueline Auriol flew this Dassault Mirage III R, nº 307, to an FAI world speed record of 2,038.70 km/h, 14 June 1963. (Archives Musée BA 102 – Collection particulière)
23 February 1951: At Istres, France, Société des Avions Marcel Dassault chief test pilot Konstantin Wladimir (“Kostia”) Rozanoff made the first flight of the Mystère MD.452 prototype, F-WFUU, c/n 01. This was a development of the Dassault Ouragan MD.450 with the wings’ leading edge swept from 14° to 30°. It was powered by a Rolls-Royce Nene turbojet engine. Rozanoff believed, though it was not confirmed, that he had broken the Sound Barrier.
A series of prototypes were built before the fighter bomber was put into production as the Mystère IIC. 171 were built between 1954 and 1957.
Kostia Rozanoff with the first prototype Dassault Mystère, F-WFUU, c/n 01. (Dassault Aviation)
The Mystère IIC was a single seat, single engine turbojet-powered fighter bomber produced for the Armée de l’Air. It was 38 feet 6 inches (11.735 meters) long with a wingspan of 42 feet, 9 inches (13.030 meters) and overall height of 14 feet (4.267 meters). The fighter had an empty weight of 11,495 pounds (5,214 kilograms) and maximum takeoff weight of 16,480 pounds (7,475 kilograms). The powerplant was a SNECMA ATAR 101D-1 turbojet which produced 6,610 pounds of thrust (29.403 kilonewtons).
The maximum speed of the Mystère IIC was 660 miles per hour (1,062 kilometers per hour). Its range was 550 miles (885 kilometers) and the service ceiling was 50,000 feet (15,240 meters).
The MD.452 was armed with two Direction des Études et Fabrications d’Armement (DEFA) 30mm revolver cannon with 150 rounds of ammunition per gun, and up to 2,000 pounds (907 kilograms) of bombs.
The prototype Dassault Mystère, F-WFUU, crashed at Istres 3 March 1953 when a wing tip fuel tank broke away and struck the airplane’s tail, killing test pilot Charles Monier.
Kostia Romanoff was killed 3 April 1954 while demonstrating a Mystère IVB.
Konstantin Wladimir Rozanoff, Chief Pilot, Dassault Aviation, with a Mystère IV. (Photograph courtesy of Neil Corbett, Test and Research Pilots, Flight Test Engineers)
At Istres, in the south of France, French World War I fighter ace and test pilot Raymond Delmotte flew a Caudron C.460 Rafale single-engine monoplane over a 3-kilometer (1.864 miles) straight course at an average speed of 505.85 kilometers per hour (314.32 miles per hour), setting a new Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) world record speed for land planes.¹
Flight reported the event:
“. . . The attempt consisted of four trial flights over a regulation three-kilometre straight course, the average time made during all of them being taken as the final result. Delmotte made a preliminary attempt in the morning, but, owing to a crosswind of 10 m.p.h. then prevailing, he was able to attain only 478 km./hr. as the average result. He then waited until the afternoon, when, the wind having fallen to about 2½ m.p.h., he took off again and accomplished an average speed of 505.84 km./hr., according to the official timers, who will submit this figure to the F.A.I. for homologation.”
—FLIGHT The Aircraft Engineer & Airships, No. 1358, Vol. XXVII, Thursday, 3 January 1935 at Page 16
The New York Daily News reported that Delmotte won a prize of 300,000 francs, equivalent to $19,000 U.S. dollars.
Raymond Delmotte and his dog, a fox terrier named Tailwind, with a Caudron C.460, No. 6907, race number 8. (Le musée de Caudron)
The Caudron C.460 Rafale was designed by Marcel Riffard, technical director of Société des Avions Caudron, a French aircraft manufacturer which had been established in 1909. (Rafale means gust: “a brief, strong, rush of wind.”) It was a light-weight, single-seat, single-engine racer with retractable landing gear. Three were built.
Three-way general arrangement drawing of the Caudron C.460 from a National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics technical publication. (NACA)
The airplane was primarily constructed of spruce, covered with doped fabric, with the engine cowling and fuel tanks fabricated of magnesium. It was 7.125 meters (23 feet, 4½ inches) long with a wingspan of 6.75 meters (22 feet, 1¾ inches) and overall height of 1.8 meters (5 feet, 11 inches). The C.460’s empty weight was 520 kilograms (1,146 pounds) and it had a gross weight of 875 kilograms (1,929 pounds).
Raymond Delmotte in the cockpit of a Caudron racer, 1935. (Bibliothèque nationale de France)
The C.460s were originally powered by an air-cooled, supercharged, 7.947-liter-displacement (484.928 cubic inches) Renault 6Q inverted 6-cylinder inline overhead valve (OHV) engine. It had 2 valves per cylinder and a compression ratio of 6:1. The engine produced 310 horsepower at 3,000 r.p.m., and 325 horsepower at 3,200 r.p.m. The direct-drive, left-hand tractor engine turned a two-bladed metal Helices Ratier automatic variable-pitch propeller with a diameter of 1.80 meters (5 feet, 10.9 inches). The Renault 6Q was 1.62 meters (5 feet, 3.8 inches) long, 0.93 meters (3 feet, 0.6 inches) high and 0.52 meters (1 foot, 8.5 inches) wide. It weighed 190 kilograms (419 pounds).
Prior to Delmotte’s speed record attempt, the C.460’s engine was changed to a larger, more powerful 9.501 liter (579.736 cubic inches) Renault 6Q engine, also a direct-drive engine, which produced 370 chaval vapeur (364.9 horsepower) at 3,250 r.p.m. The engine’s centrifugal supercharger turned 26,000 r.p.m. The variable-pitch Ratier propeller was retained.
Raymond Delmotte with his record-setting Caudron C.460 Rafale. (Le musée de l’Air et de l’Espace MA25842)Raymond Delmotte’s Société des Avions Caudron C.460 Rafale. (FAI)
There is little biographical information available about Raymond Delmotte. He was born at Saint-Quentin, Aisne, France, 11 November 1894. He married Mlle Louisa Dagneaux, and they had three children, Fernande, Raymond, and Ann Marie. He held ten FAI records for speed and distance. He died 13 December 1962.
The Rue Raymond Delmotte in Saint-Quentin is named in his honor.
Raymond Delmotte with Mme Delmotte and his canine associate, 6 May 1937. (Henry Ely-Aix)
Aérospatiale SA 3210 Super Frelon F-ZWWE with Roland Coffignot, Jean Boulet and Joseph Turchini. (Aérospatiale)
FAI Record File Num #9963
Status: ratified – superseded since approved
Region: World
Class: E (Rotorcraft)
Sub-Class: E-1 (Helicopters)
Category: General
Group: 2 : turbine
Type of record: Speed over a 3 km course
Performance: 341.23 km/h
Date: 1963-07-19
Course/Location: Istres (France)
Claimant Jean Boulet (FRA)
Crew Roland COFIGNOT
Rotorcraft: Aérospatiale SA 3210 “Super Frelon”
Engines: 3 Turbomeca Turmo
23 June 1924: Joseph Sadi-Lecointe set a Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) World Record for Speed Over a Distance of 500 Kilometers when he flew a Nieuport-Delâge NiD-42 S sesquiplane to an average speed of 306.70 kilometers per hour (190.57 miles per hour) at Istres, France.¹
Nieuport-Delâge NiD-42 S. (Fédération Aéronautique Internationale)
Two Nieuport-Delâge NiD-42 S racers were built by Société Nieuport-Astra. The airplane was a single-place, single-engine, strut-braced high-wing sesquiplane (“a plane-and-a-half”) with fixed landing gear. An airfoil was positioned between the wheels.
The NiD-42 S racer was 6.55 meters (21 feet, 5.9 inches) long and 2.20 meters (7 feet, 2.6 inches) high. The upper wingspan was 9.50 meters (31 feet, 2.0 inches) and the lower wing, 2.75 meters (9 feet, 0.3 inches). The vertical gap between the wings was 1.70 meters (5 feet, 6.9 inches). The lower “half wing” had an area of 1.60 square meters (17.22 square feet).
The racer’s empty weight was 1,170 kilograms (2,580 pounds), and gross weight was 1,440 kilograms (3,175 pounds).
Le sesquiplan Nieuport de Sadi-Lecointe sur lequel il realize son record de vitesse du monde. (L’AÉROPHILE, 1er-15 Octobre 1922, at page 294)
The fuselage was a wood monocoque assembly, built in two halves, using as many as six layers of 0.9 mm (0.04 inches) white wood strips, placed diagonally at alternating 90° angles. The completed fuselage was then covered in doped fabric. The upper wing was one built as one piece, using two spruce spars. The surfaces were plywood, covered with fabric. The struts were steel tubing with a streamlined cross section. Cylindrical Lamblin radiators were used for engine cooling, located under the fuselage. The lower “half-wing” was made of duralumin.
The NiD-42 S was powered by a water-cooled, supercharged, 18.473 liter (1,127.265 cubic inch displacement) Société Française Hispano-Suiza Type 42 (also referred to as the 8F series), a single overhead camshaft (SOHC) 90° V-8 engine with a compression ratio of 5.3:1. The standard normally-aspirated engine was rated at 320 horsepower, but Sadi-Lecointe’s was supercharged and required that benzol added to the fuel to prevent pre-ignition. When tested, the engine produced exactly 357.7 horsepower at 1,860 r.p.m. It was a direct-drive engine which turned a two-bladed fixed-pitch propeller.
The NiD-42 S had a maximum speed of 330 kilometers per hour (205 miles per hour) and maximum range of 500 kilometers (311 miles).
This left front quarter view of the NiD-42 S shows the lower airfoil between the landing gear wheels which gives the airplane the sesquiplane designation. (hydroretro)
Joseph Sadi-Lecointe learned to fly in 1910. The Aero Club de France awarded him its license number 431 on 10 February 1910.
He joined the Service Aéronautique (the original form of the French Air Force) as a mechanic in October 1912, and was designated pilote militaire nº375, 20 September 1913. He served as a pilot during World War I, flying the Blériot XI-2, Morane LA and Nieuprt X, then in December 1915 became a flight instructor at l’Ecole de Pilotage d’Avord.
Sadi-Lacointe was promoted from the enlisted ranks to sous-lieutenant, 17 September 1917, and was assigned as a test pilot at Blériot–Société Pour L’Aviation et ses Dérivés, where he worked on the development of the famous SPAD S.XIII C.1 fighter.
Joseph Sadi-Lecointe was a test pilot for the SPAD S.XIII C.1 fighter. (BnF)
After the War, he was a test pilot for Nieuport-Delâge, and participated in numerous races and set a series of speed and altitude records with the company’s airplanes.
Sadi-Lecointe returned to military service in 1925 and participated in the Second Moroccan War. Then in 1927, he returned to his position as chief test pilot for Nieuport-Delâge. From 1936 to 1940, he served as Inspecteur général de l’aviation civile (Inspector General of Aviation) for the French Air Ministry. With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Lieutenant Colonel Sadi-Lecointe was again recalled to military service as Inspector of Flying Schools.
With the Fall of France, Sadi-Lacointe joined La Résistance française and operated with the group Rafale Andromède. He was captured and tortured by the Gestapo at Paris, and died as a result, 15 July 1944.
Joseph Sadi-Lecointe, Commandeur Ordre national de la Légion d’honneur, was awarded the Croix de Guerre in three wars. He was posthumously awarded the Médaille de la Résistance. The Aéro-Club de France awarded him its Grande Médaille d’Or de l’Aéro-Club de France. During his flying career, Sadi-Lecointe set seven World Records for Speed, and three World Records for Altitude.
