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Old 6th May 2015, 12:56
  #54 (permalink)  
Reinhardt
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Qatar
Age: 68
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Yes, Super-Etendard, Jaguar and also Mirage F1 (South Africa and Lybia versions) have the extendable/retractable probe.
A very nice design, which did entailed quite a few nicknames ...
Unfortunately, it does require some space in the nose, with the associated mechanism, to the expense of a radar or range-finders
Moreover, there is always the remote possibility that this thing would not extend, somewhere over the ocean or an african desert - although to my knowledge (I flew all the above-mentioned aircraft) it never happened
Tunnel testing did show the drag penalty to be minimal even non-existent, even in supersonic - M2.2...
And everybody do like it in fact - "first batches" Mirage F1 without it did seem unbalanced for sure
Some F1 (Iraq) had a probe tip slightly longer than the others, if loking closely (jokes, again...)
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