page_title: Sud Aviation Vautour
section_title: Design
hierarchical_section_title: Sud Aviation Vautour / Design
caption_attribution_description: Vautour II N conservé au musée du château de Savigny-les-Beaunes. Cet appareil a été utilisé par le Centre d'Essais en Vol et modifié pour tester le radar du futur Mirage F1 (suppression des canons à l'avant, nouveau nez semblable à celui du F1).
context_page_description: The Sud-Ouest Aviation S.O. 4050 Vautour II was a French jet-powered bomber, interceptor, and attack aircraft developed and manufactured by aircraft company Sud Aviation.
  The Vautour was operated by France's Armée de l'Air, having been originally developed by Sud Aviation in response to a French requirement for a jet aircraft for bombing, low-level attack and all-weather interception operations. The Vautour was used in the Force de frappe under the Commandement des Forces Aériennes Stratégiques; each aircraft was suitable for the carriage of a nuclear weapon. The shortcomings of the type as a bomber, such as its lack of radar or other advanced navigation/attack systems, led to the type being replaced by the more capable Dassault Mirage IV. The Vautour never saw combat use with the French Air Force.
  The only other customer for the Vautour was Israel. During its service with the Israeli Air Force, the type undertook various mission and roles and was quickly used in combat. Vautours were used during the wars between Israel and its neighbors, including the Six-Day War and the War of Attrition.
context_section_description: The Sud Aviation Vautour was a jet-propelled mid-sized combat aircraft, typically employed as a bomber and attack aircraft, as well as having some usage as an interceptor. In terms of its basic configuration, it had a shoulder-wing monoplane configuration, furnished with a 35° swept wing and a "flying" tail. Power was provided by a pair of SNECMA Atar 101 turbojet engines, which were carried in pods located underneath the wings. The Vautour was equipped with a bicycle-type landing gear configuration in which the main units were located upon the underside of the fore and aft fuselage, these were augmented by smaller stabilizing gear set into bottom of the engine pods. The internal space of the central fuselage was largely dedicated to a large 5.0 meter (16 ft 5 in) weapons bay, along with substantial internal fuel tankage.
  The Vautour IIB bomber lacked any sort of radar arrangement or many of the contemporary navigational aids and attack systems that were installed upon several aircraft performing the same role during this era. Aiming of the armaments was performed by a bombardier, who would principally perform his bomb-aiming function using a Second World War-vintage American-built Norden bombsight. The navigator/bombardier position was within the nose section, which was glazed to provide external visibility. Both the Vautour IIB and IIA models were restricted to performing missions only under clear-weather operations during daylight. The Vantour IIN interceptor model was not as restrictive, having some capacity to conduct both nighttime and adverse weather operations, having been furnished with a radar system. During its service in Israel, where the weather of the local climate was generally favorable and daylight missions commonplace, the Vautour's lack of advanced targeting and navigation equipment was found to be not a crippling limitation. However, when operated in Europe, these restrictions were considered to be a major disadvantage. As a result, the French AdA never deployed their single-seat Vautour IIA fleet in a frontline capacity; the majority of its IIB bombers were quickly converted to the improved Vautour IIBR standard, which was used to perform photo reconnaissance missions instead.
  The Vautour was capable of being equipped with various armaments. In Israeli service, it was typically armed with a pair of 30 mm cannons, as well as up to four removable underwing rocket pods, containing up to 19 air-to-ground rockets each; up to 3,000lb of bombs or alternatively a maximum of 232 68 mm rockets could be accommodated internally in the bomb bay. 4,000lb of bombs could also be mounted externally. The Vautour IIB bomber could be used to carry and deploy nuclear weapons in addition to its conventional arsenal. The internal bomb bay of a single aircraft could contain either one AN-11 or one AN-22 nuclear bomb; however, in AdA service, the primary carrier of nuclear weapons would quickly be transitioned to the newer and more capable Dassault Mirage IV, which supplemented and eventually replace the Vautour IIB bomber.
caption: Vautour II N
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