How to use the Radar Control on a Swiss Mirage III

Hey all,

Work is progressing on the Inside The Cockpit Episode on the Swiss Mirage III but part of this planes unique history provided an interesting bottleneck - that being the American TARAN 18 system.

When Switzerland bought the Mirage III from France, it decided against the use of the already installed (and working) French Cyrano radar system. Instead, Switzerland used the TARAN 18 which required substantial changes to the aircraft and cockpit - this is not a plug and play affair. Part of the official reasons was that this allowed the US of American weapon systems. 

TARAN 18 and the Mirage III never really got along but it seems to have worked 'good enough' from what I can piece together. To come back to this bottleneck however, I have yet to find a flight manual of a Swiss Mirage III. The plane continued to be in service until relatively recently, Switzerland only retired them in 2003, so this is not that surprising.  I did have French and Australian manuals - also linked here for all of you - but that's about it.

The problem then was, how did the pilot operate the radar system during flight. Much can be pieced together as this is an American system but I can't rely on that since Switzerland might have done some changes. I contacted the museum for a copy of the flight manual which was something they couldn't send me - for obvious reasons, it contains +400 pages and is a hard copy. Someone would have to spend a long day scanning those, which was not something that I wanted to ask. 

However, the kind folk over at the museum said they would be happy to answer any questions I had. I send a list and got multiple detailed replies. So, as I go through the explanations myself, I thought I'd send out this little bonus for all of you and explain parts of the system - the radar controls stick (See pictures). 

The first picture with only red writing shows some of my own assumptions which were close but no cigar.

The second picture with additional black text shows the correct use - with additional detail.

Manche Radar

• Pushing left or right changes the azimuth  (+/-52°)
• Pushing forward or pulling backward moves the the radar gate if the radar-trigger (3) is pressed at least in the first position.

Number 1

• Button emitter-tuning: the pilot can change the emitter frequency

Number 2

• Scan altitude: (+/-45°)

Number 3

• Radar-trigger: position 1 = narrow scan mode. Position 2: lock on

Number 4

• Pilot can chose the forward or the backward edge of the echo-pulse (long => backward edge, court => forward edge). With a single target, pilot chooses "long" if attacking tail-on,  court for frontal attacks. For multiple targets, this helps to  discriminate aircraft flying in close formation and therefore chose one of multiple targets.

Number 5 

•  Afterburner-switch

With this and other info, I can start putting together the final pieces in the puzzle and complete the video. Big thank you again to the museum for helping me with this video, when travel resume to normal you should definitely visit it if you pass through Switzerland: http://www.clindailes.ch/

Also, the Walkaround on the Hawker Hurricane and P-47D Thunderbolt that I worked on in the meantime are progressing nicely and should be completed by early next week.

Hope you enjoyed this little introduction to the Mirage III.

Chris