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(Israel's 27th anniversary) had not taken part in the 1973 Yom Kippur war. This would appear to confirm the Flight report in the January 23 issue that it was understood no J79-powered Mirages were in Israeli Air Force service at that time. Previous reports had said that as many as two squadrons of such aircraft had been delivered by the time of the war. Reliable sources in Israel now report, nevertheless, that Kfir is operational and, although the two aircraft at Lod differed in minor respects, neither had the appearance of a prototype.

Jurom demonstrated The joint Jugoslav-Romanian light

strike-trainer, Jurom, emerged briefly from the shadows of secrecy on April 15 when it was demonstrated at the Batajnica military air base near Bel­grade. Watching the demonstration, according to the national news agency, were the Jugoslav Defence Minister, Gen Nikola Ljubicic, and Air Force Commander Gen Enver Cemalovic.

No details of the aircraft or flight-test progress were given but it is understood that the Jurom flew for the first time in August last year. Subsequent progress with the twin Viper 600-powered aircraft is thought to have been fairly slow with only about ten flights achieved by last Christmas, but confidence in the pro­ject is clearly sufficient now for a slight relaxation in the very close security which has surrounded it since its existence first became known some three years ago.

Alpha Jet production agreement France and Germany have finally

agreed to go ahead with production of the Alpha Jet. Authorisation for final drawings and production tooling is expected shortly. Agreement was reached in Bonn on March 26 at a meeting between the French Delegue Ministeriel pour FArmament, M Jean-Laurens Delpech, and the German Secretary of State at the Defence Ministry, Dr Siegfried Mann.

No firm date has been fixed for the actual start of production but it will be as soon as the test centres have fi­nished their evaluation of flight-test results. This is not expected to cause any major problems since both the air­craft and its Larzac 04 engine are reported to have met almost the en­tire list of specifications already.

"Technical conditions of delivery" were the subject of the discussions on March 26 which took place after con­siderable delay in arriving at the basic production agreement (see Flight for February 27, page 328). According to Dornier, "there is no doubt that the

production aircraft can be delivered to the German Air Force and to the Armee de FAir by the dates laid down in the contract." These are not speci­fied but it is expected that deliveries will begin during 1977.

Alpha Jet 01 is now in the final phase of acceptance flying at CEV, Istres, with four more flights due as of last week directly concerned with the Larzac. The second aircraft has com­pleted its schedule of performance and handling trials with external loads and will soon begin gun-firing trials at Cazaux; 03 is temporarily grounded for maintenance and will be carrying out a series of demonstrations in Ger­many during May; 04 has finished air-conditioning and hydraulic systems checks and is engaged on electrical and communications equipment trials.

Austria: fighter decision postponed A decision on Austria's choice of

fighter has been postponed until at least the summer of 1976, according to the country's Secretary of Defence, Karl Luetgendorf. The main reason is almost certainly straightforward lack of money although Herr Luetgendorf has said that it would be better to improve the ground radar environ­ment in Austria first and then decide which aircraft is required to take over the air-defence role.

Estimates as to when improvements to the radars could be completed vary between 1978 and 1980 but it is prob­able that they will become a sine qua non for buying combat aircraft. How much of the diminutive defence bud­get would remain for buying aircraft after radar improvements had been made is a matter of some doubt.

At the same time as Army chief Gen Emil Spannocchi was making an urgent demand for intercepters to a session of the Austrian Defence Coun­cil, Swedish newspapers published re­ports that negotiations between these two neutral countries were far ad­vanced. Eighteen ex-Royal Swedish Air Force J35B Drakens would be leased initially to Austria by Saab, said one report, with the possibility of a Viggen order to follow up. Another report also said that 18 Drakens

A Zambian Air Force DC-6B recently paid a visit on unknown business to Munich

FLIGHT International, 24 April I97S

would be leased at first but said more Drakens would be leased later and these aircraft would eventually be bought.

As we went to press a demonstra­tion of the Saab Viggen was being planned for April 23 at Langenlebarn air base west of Vienna. A delegation recently visited Sweden from Austria to evaluate the aircraft (see Flight, March 20, page 447).

Several problems are involved in the potential purchase. The remaining life of some of the J35Bs is said to be only 500hr and maintenance would amount to 20 per cent of the purchase price annually—estimated at AuS360 mil­lion (about £10 million) for 18 air­craft. Viggen is regarded as a very expensive buy in such small numbers as Austria is likely to want, with a possible unit cost of AuS200 million.

Another problem which would con­front the Austrian Air Force in the-'-event of a true combat aircraft pur­chase is the general lack of high-per­formance trained pilots. The most ad­vanced combat aircraft in Austrian service at present is the Saab 105OE. Apart from the Draken and Viggen the other main contender is still the Northrop F-5E Tiger with the Mirage F.l lagging somewhat behind in the "competition." It appears that so far neither Hawker Siddeley nor British Aircraft Corporation has made any firm sales effort in the country.

Jaguar accident cause The fatal accident to the Armee de

FAir Jaguar E near Rheims was last week erroneously attributed in Flight to both engines having flamed out (page 637). The problem of Adours flaming out in certain conditions after a modification to reduce carbon build­up in the flametube is indeed a well recognised one in the Royal Air Force and a fix has been found, but none of the Adours in French Air Force Jaguar service has the original anti-carbon modification and the flame-out problem has consequently not been encountered in French aircraft.

The Jaguar E which crashed was taking part in a low-level ground-attack training mission and is thought to have carried out a diving attack immediately before the accident. Flight understands that at this stage of the investigation into the cause there is no suggestion of an engine problem.