Description

Éric Moreau, former air traffic controller of the French Air Force who also worked in the Historical Service of Vincennes, had already served the history of modern French wings well, by co-writing the complete saga (three volumes) of the legendary Mirage III , an authoritative monograph. New collaboration, this time with Jean-Pierre Calka, like him a former military air traffic controller, for this book relating the actions and actions of units equipped with the Air Force’s first “refuelable” in-flight fighter-bomber, the Super Sobre. With this American-built device, the Air Force not only entered the era of foreign operations, particularly in Africa, but also nuclear deterrence within NATO. In other words, a major turning point has been taken in terms of operational missions as well as technical and implementation procedures. Two squadrons employed the F-100 , the 3 rd and 11 th CE, for no less than 20 years, from 1958 to 1978, both under European and African skies (the last unit ending this career in the horn of the ‘Africa, in Djibouti). Like the three volumes on the Mirage III, the authors minutely visited the logs of marches and operations and the technical documentation, retracing practically day by day the activity of the squadrons, but also the individual life of the 97 aircraft, from their commissioning to their withdrawal. There is thus a certain consistency in the design of this type of work, paving the way for a long line of aeronautical and historical publications relating to aircraft which have marked the Air Force. Very richly illustrated, in particular with 16 color profiles specially drawn on the occasion, this 336-page book naturally stands out as the reference on the subject. It will undoubtedly satisfy the amateurs of military aviation, like the old ones of the Air Force.