page_title: Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet
section_title: Civilian service
hierarchical_section_title: Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet / Operational history / Civilian service
caption_attribution_description: Dornier Alpha-Jet owned by Abbatare of Arlington, Washington, landing at Mojave
context_page_description: The Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet is a light attack jet and advanced jet trainer co-manufactured by Dassault Aviation of France and Dornier Flugzeugwerke of Germany. It was developed specifically to perform trainer and light attack missions, as well as to perform these duties more ideally than the first generation of jet trainers that preceded it. Following a competition, a design submitted by a team comprising Breguet Aviation, Dassault Aviation, and Dornier Flugzeugwerke, initially designated as the TA501, was selected and subsequently produced as the Alpha Jet.
  Both the French Air Force and German Air Force procured the Alpha Jet in large numbers, the former principally as a trainer aircraft and the latter choosing to use it as a light attack platform. As a result of post-Cold War military cutbacks, Germany elected to retire its own fleet of Alpha Jets in the 1990s and has re-sold many of these aircraft to both military and civilian operators. The Alpha Jet has been adopted by a number of air forces across the world and has also seen active combat use by some of these operators.
context_section_description: Swiss firm RUAG Aviation offers full support services for the Alpha Jet in cooperation with Dassault Aviation; services provided includes recommissioning, servicing, inspections, system upgrades integration work, along with technical and logistic support. Abbatare Inc. of Arlington, Washington, under the name of "Alpha Jets USA", has imported a number of Alpha Jets into the United States, the firm modifies and sells individual aircraft in the civilian market.
  Canadian aviation specialist Top Aces operates a fleet of Douglas A-4 Skyhawks and Alpha Jets as adversary aircraft in air combat training exercises; these are often operated under contract for various military clients. Multiple civil aerial display teams have procured Alpha Jets, such as the Flying Bulls and Mustang High Flight Aerobatics teams. H211, a private company which manages the planes owned and leased by Google execs Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Eric Schmidt, operates a single Alpha Jet, based at NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California. It is reportedly equipped with scientific instrumentation and used for research purposes.
  Commencing in the third quarter of 2017, Air Affairs Australia and Discovery Air will provide three Alpha Jets to the Australian Defence Force for Australian Army attack controller training and anti-surface training (simulating sea-skimming missiles) for the Royal Australian Navy. They will be based at RAAF Base Williamtown.
caption: An Alpha Jet imported by Abbatare lands at the Mojave Airport
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA", "Image Make": "OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP.", "Image Model": "SP550UZ", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Version 1.1", "Image DateTime": "2007:12:06 13:31:30", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "996", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 37, 0, 1, 0, 20, 0, ... ]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "8180", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3550", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/400", "EXIF FNumber": "71/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "50", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:12:06 13:31:30", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:12:06 13:31:30", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "297/100", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Spot", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "2106/25", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3072", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2304", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1714", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}