IAI Kfir C2

thingiverse

IAI Kfir The "lion cub" of the Heyl Ha'Avir is a multirole combat aircraft derived from the Mirage 5. After the embargo in 1967 and the missed delivery of 50 Mirage 5J, specifically built following IAF requests, Israel decided to build their own Mirage without Dassault license. It's unclear how things went down: did Israel steal construction projects like a spy movie script or simply get help from countries that had the Mirage? Maybe France made a secret delivery of 50 Mirage 5 standard instead of the 5J variant ordered and paid for, or maybe it was all mixed up in some way. Either way, by 1971, the Nesher was born. The decision to use an American J-79 engine on the airframe gave birth to the Kfir in 1973; this aircraft performed far better than the original Mirage 5. The Kfir entered service with the IAF in 1975 and wasn't exported to many countries due to US government restrictions on J-79 sales. A curious note: another similar plane, the South African Cheetah, was born under similar circumstances after another embargo, thanks to large technical assistance from Israel. Model 1:100 scale printed at 1:285 with a 0.4mm nozzle and 0.12mm layers. Printed as shown in the image.