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The French Air Force during the Indochina War was employed primarily as a ground-support force. The air force there was reconstituted in 1946 from personnel and aircraft already in Indochina. The latter were a mixture of captured Japanese aircraft as well as British Spitfire and American-made Bell P-63A Kingcobra fighters, German trimotor Junkers JU-52, and […]

The very first female Rafale pilot, Captain Claire Merouze, 26, is assigned to the 01.007 Provence squadron and already has logged 5 flights with instructors on Rafale B. Despite the poor state of the French Air Force at the end of World War II, it was to play a significant role in the Indochina War […]

By 10 May 1940, when Germany invaded France and the Low Countries, 228 D.520s had been manufactured, but the French Air Force had accepted only 75, as most others had been sent back to the factory to be retrofitted to the new standard. As a result, only GC I/3 was fully equipped, having 36 aircraft. […]