The SAAF Forum

The Dassault Mirage III in South African Air Force service

Malcolm Reid has compiled this fascinating ebook on the Mirage III in South African Air Force service.

Malcolm felt that a consolidated record of the details pertaining to Mirage IIIs in SAAF service was needed for future use by modelers and enthusiasts alike. Whilst this document is in no way intended to be the definitive record of the Mirage III in SAAF service, it does allow as much available data to be recorded in a consolidated series of documents.

The document has been divided into 7 sub-parts each addressing a particular aspect of the Mirage III in SAAF service.

These sub-parts are :
• Part 1 – Introduction to the Mirage III in SAAF service and SAAF Mirage IIICZ and BZ (Updated)
• Part 2 – SAAF Mirage IIIEZ, DZ, D2Z, RZ and R2Z
• Part 3 – SAAF Mirage III airframe data, weapons and avionics
• Part 4 – Differentiating between the various SAAF Mirage variants
• Part 5 – SAAF Mirage III BZ and CZ detail photos
• Part 6 – SAAF Mirage III RZ and R2Z detail photos
• Part 7 – SAAF Mirage III scale models

Many thanks to Malcolm for compiling the documents for the benefit of all and for allowing it to be hosted by The Unofficial SAAF Website.

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How come every time my ship comes in, I'm at the airport?

Nice work Malcolm!

Very cool, part of protecting our history.

Fantastic initiative, well done Malcolm.

Part 1 has been updated and Parts 2 to 7 have been uploaded.

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How come every time my ship comes in, I'm at the airport?

Awesome thank you for this info Malcolm.

The Mirage IIIBZ with the shark teeth is 817. My brother Dudley sent me a pic with it in the hanger.

the pic was sent to him by Piet Van Schalkwyk with the following. "Dit was 817 en dit was terwyl die laaste 2 x F1CZ's die V3C proewe gedoen het. Sy het chase gevlieg vir die uitvlugte". not sure who the photo belongs to.

Thanks Syphin .

I wonder how many photo collections are sitting in cupboards / trommels around SA.

I think I have a pic of 817 up on a GVT rig when we were developing our ground vibration test capability. Of course my ugly mug is in front of it. I'll search for it.

Please do ! Will be like a time machine back several decades ! We are sourcing all sorts of photos via a whatsapp group and will need to update these PDFs. Some nice photos from 2 Sqn line books.

That title is incorrect. Or at least partially. This was taken when 817 was in the still active 3 Sqn hangar at Waterkloof. The Sharkmouth was painted on then. The F1s in the background are still in service. 817 was with TVOS at the time I believe but this photo was taken before 190 Sqn and 205.5 and 209 were doing missile development work.

Video showing the sharkmouth being painted while 3 Sqn was still active:
https://youtu.be/71in1z9GbUM?si=Onrp4O8glslsI9zt

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MAMBA

Keep your feet on the ground, and reach for the skies!

I disagree and say that this photograph was taken inside hangar 14 at Swartkop where the SAAF Museum Heritage Flight is now housed.

The reason for me to say this is besides hangar 14 there was only one other hangar that was built in this way with a high roof and offices on the side of the hangar and that was hangar 15 which was dismantled.

The Mirages in the photo were stored by the museum in hangar 14 and with the two F1CZ's and the Mirage IIIBZ 817 were recently received by the museum, the one FiCZ was allocated to the CSIR and the other 203 to the museum.
However it is also possible that the second F1CZ was 213 that was allocated to the Ysterplaat museum?

Having looked at the video now I can say that the video was filmed at 3 Sqn hangar at Waterkloof and not as I stated at 14 hangar, Swartkop.

Just uploaded Part 9: SAAF Mirage and Cheetah external fuel tanks
GALLERY & MEDIA - PUBLICATIONS AND RESEARCH PAPERS

Thanks again to Malcolm for his hard work.

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How come every time my ship comes in, I'm at the airport?