History
Following the end of the Second World War, many European nations focused on rebuilding. France had enormous challenges to overcome, having had their military and industry effectively shut down during the war. To fill the immediate gap, they purchased aircraft from the United States and Great Britain, but the desire to rebuild their own indigenous aircraft industry was high. Marcel Bloch, returning from a German prison after the war, adopted the name he used while in the French Resistance and established the Dassault aircraft company.
Recognizing that jet aircraft were the future, Dassault immediately jumped into designing their first jet. Drawing inspiration from the Republic F-84 that France had purchased from the United States, their first design featured a nose intake, straight wings, and tip tanks. Designated the MD 450, the French government did not initially issue an order for the type. Dassault took a gamble and continued the development as a private venture, and the first prototype took to the air in February 1948. The government quickly saw the benefits of the design, both from an operational standpoint as well as for the industry in general and soon ordered a dozen pre-production aircraft and over 300 production airframes.
The Ouragan entered operational service with three French squadrons, the 2nd, the 4th, and the 12th. The Ouragan gave the French Air Force a stable introduction to jet aircraft, but it quickly became obsolete and faster, more modern aircraft soon supplanted the design. The Ouragan continued to fly in France, though, serving with training and test units until 1964. The aircraft also saw service in the export world, with Israel and India operating the type in the 1950s and 1960s. When Israel was finished with their Ouragans, eighteen were sold to El Salvador in 1975, with that nation becoming the last country to fly the type.
References
For such an important aircraft to the French aircraft industry, it is surprising that there are not more books covering the Ouragan. While long out of print, the Profile Publications #143 is probably the most common reference known. This is only a handful of pages and provides a brief written history, a handful of photographs, and a couple pages of color illustrations. As the book was published in 1967, though, it is an incomplete reference, as Israel was still flying the type and, of course, no mention of the purchase by El Salvador (which wouldn't happen for eight more years). Still, this book is fairly inexpensive and can still be found online and at used book shops, and it remains the only English-language book on the Ouragan.
While there have been several magazine articles written on the Ouragan over the years, separate books covering the type have been oddly absent. A Russian language monograph came out in the Aviakollektsiya series in 2007, and while it was a decent publication, it was not readily accessible internationally. The advantages of this 34-page book included detail photos and a complete history, including the final operations and disposition of the aircraft flown by El Salvador. Most of the book was written text, though, making it a challenge for those not familiar with the Russian language. The book does include scale drawings, though, which definitely gives this publication an edge over the other titles.
For the best reference on the Ouragan, it is understandable that we would turn to the French. The publisher Histoire & Collections started a new series documenting the aircraft of the French Air Force, the Les Matériels de L'Armée de L'Air series. Of course,
the first title of the series should start with the first indigenous French jet fighter, the Ouragan. This book is easily the most complete history of the type, and although written in French, is much easier to work through than the Russian book (for non-native speakers, that is). It also has the distinct advantage of presenting the reader with many color photographs, a feature lacking in other publications. Finally, the breakdown of the book provides color illustrations that document all of the Ouragan units and their various colors and markings, both French and international. The only thing lacking are detail photos, but even without those this is probably the best reference for the scale modeler.
The Kit
Mimicking the publication environment, available kits of the Dassault Ouragan have been surprisingly few. In fact, until this new release from Valom, the only kit available was the Heller release. Heller's kit of the Ouragan, while old, was quite decent, with accurate shape and simple construction. Where it lacked was in the details, so this new release from Valom is very welcome. Molded in the usual gray plastic, the Valom kit features exquisite recessed detail, including riveting. A resin seat helps with the interior, and a small fret of photoetched brass adds more details. The decal sheet provides markings for two aircraft.
Assembly begins with the cockpit, and it is here that this kit is definitely far ahead of the Heller kit. The main tub is made up from a floor and separate sidewall pieces, with a separate rear bulkhead. The intake splitter makes up the front of the cockpit tub, as well as the nose gear well. The instrument panel is a combination of injection plastic and photoetch, while the resin seat gets photoetched seat belts. The end result is a very nice looking interior, which is a bit unfortunate as the kit comes with a one-piece canopy. This kind of detail definitely deserves to be shown off, so I would recommend getting out your JLC saw and carefully opening the canopy.
With the interior done, the rest of the construction is fairly straightforward. The fuselage is split into right and left halves, with a separate lower nose piece. One thing that is no mentioned in the instructions is the need for nose weight. Given the layout of this aircraft, this model will definitely need some. Unfortunately, there is not much room for that weight, so be ready for some creative cramming. A couple of spots to look at include above the intake splitter and right behind the cockpit rear bulkhead.
Moving to the flying surfaces, the wings are split identically to the Heller kit, with a one-piece lower wing incorporating the lower fuselage center section and separate upper halves. The tip tanks are separate and split into halves, with a separate fin. The stabilizers are solid right and left pieces. The landing gear is simple and sturdy, at least for the main gear. The nose gear has the potential to be fragile, with a separate strut and fork. The wheels, both main and nose, have nice hub detail, but suffer from a slight misalignment. Finally, there are rockets and bombs provided for underwing stores.
The decal options provide an Israeli and a French example. The Israeli Ouragan is camouflaged in blue gray and earth over light gray and features a large sharkmouth on the nose. There is also a squadron emblem on the tail and a personal marking on the fuselage, making this a rather interesting Israeli example. The French Ouragan is natural metal overall and is the example seen at the Le Bourget museum in Paris. The decals are nicely printed overall, and should present no challenges in application.
Conclusion
While the Heller kit is very buildable, it is great to see this important French aircraft get a modern kit treatment. The simple construction coupled with the colorful marking options will make this a great subject for modelers looking for something a bit different. My thanks to Valom for the review sample.