This was the first French jet-engined fighter to reach production. The Ouragan was a simple but elegant aircraft with a circular nose intake and straight wings. The thick wing limited performance. Over 450 built. Some saw combat in Israeli service, others were sold to India. Israeli fighters were sold to El Salvador, and used until well into the 1980s.

 

THE KIT

This was probably France's first successful jet fighter and the granddaddy of such aircraft as the Mystere, Super Mystere and a whole family of Mirages! It is natural that Heller would produce a kit of it and despite the raised surface detail, is a very nice kit. There are no real options to the kit and despite showing bomb racks on the box art, none are included in the kit. It is really quite simple with a cockpit consisting of a tub, seat, stick and instrument panel. There is some room for weight in the nose section. The wheel wells are partially full but not complete. I found no problems with flash or sink areas. There are some ejector pin marks on the inside of the gear doors and a few other spots, but nothing major. The one-piece canopy will have to be cut if you want it open.

Instructions are typical pictorial construction sequences with colors given with Heller numbers. There is a cross reference sheet provided, something that I wish modern Heller kits supplied. Markings are for two aircraft. One is the box art plane of the Israeli Air Force with the large shark mouth and painted in desert colors. The instructions show that mixing of these colors is needed. The other is a French version from EC 1/12 at Cambrai in 1954 with lots of red on the nose and tail section. The majority of the plane is bare metal. Decals are well printed and matte. Generally they work quite well and do succumb to setting solutions.

CONCLUSIONS