The Force Aérienne Gabonaise purchased a total of three Mirage 5Gs and two Mirage 5DG trainers in 1975. The contract originally included two Mirage 5RG reconnaissance aircraft, but these were subsequently cancelled.
Deliveries were completed in 1978, but no aircraft was delivered before 1980, when the training of the crews was completed.
Only one year after they were finally delivered to Liberville, two Mirages were lost in a collision, while the others started suffering to hot and rainy climate. Consequently, in 1982 a follow-up order for four Mirage 5G-IIs and two Mirage 5DG-IIs was issued. These aircraft were all delivered by 1984, by when also the survivors of the original batch were refurbished in France.
As of the early 1990s three Mirage 5Gs and three two-seaters should have still been in service with the Escadron de Chasse 1-02 "Leyou", but their current status remains unclear.
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| (Photo: AMD/BA) |
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| (Photo: AMD/BA) |
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| (Photo: ACIG Archives) |
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| Gabon originally ordered two mirage 5DG trainers, both of which were delivered only in 1980. In 1982 a follow-up order for two additional Mirage 5DG-IIs was issued, both of which arrived by 1984. Only two two-seaters survived the service with FAGA by the late 1980s, however, and their current status remains unknown. (ACIG archives) |
Serials of the original three Gabonese Mirage 5Gs were 401 thru 403, Mirage 5DGs were 201 and 202. The two Mirage 5RGs were assigned serials 301 and 302, but never delivered. The Mirage 5DG-IIs were serialled 501 thru 504, while the two additional 5DGs became 203 and 204.
1 comment:
Hello, I have found 2 Mirage 5G2s in South Africa, one is located in a Cape Town suburb called Parow Valley at an unknown specific location, and the other is outside Rhodesfield High School. Both are presumed imported to South Africa by a company called Paramount Group. Your blog helped me identify the aircraft in Parow as Mirage 5G2 Number 501, and the one in outside the highschool as Number 504.
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