Aircraft

  The Mirage IIIO was the Royal Australian Air Force’s first supersonic fighter, serving with the RAAF from the delivery of the first aircraft on 9 April 1963 until its retirement in September 1988, when it was replaced by the F/A-18 Hornet.   In the late 1950s, Australia had still not chosen a new fighter to replace the ageing and outdated CA-27 Avon Sabre, an Australian-modified and built version of the American F-86 Sabre. Australia needed a new, modern fighter that was on par with the new NATO fighters of the day. The logic of air defence at the time called for a fast interceptor that could move

The Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation ( CAC) CA-27 Avon Sabre was in RAAF service from 1956 to 1971 which was a later start date and a much longer period of service than the American F86 Sabre had. The F86 served with United states from1949 to the late 1950’s even pushing into the early 60’s with some Air national guard units. The Avon Sabre as the Australian variant was known was not the same as the American Sabre. The Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation built it with a Rolls Royce Avon RA.7 turbo jet engine which produced 7 500 pounds of thrust which made it more powerful then the F86 Sabres 6100