As the French truck drivers from Sarrion departed for home in La Rochelle, our team of engineers began preparing to assemble the aircraft. Led by Heritage Manager Gary Hancock working alongside David Dron & Lionel Schmidt from France and our own Aircraft Engineering team, there followed a week of early starts and late nights as the delta wings were first moved delicately into position before being bolted to the fuselage. We were blessed with calm, wind free conditions to bring together the major components, particularly when lowering the sail-like tail fin into position.

Once the main structure was complete, the task of adding the sub-assemblies began, with the long undercarriage legs proving to be taking longer than anticipated.

Throughout the build, everyone was impressed with the quality of the Mirage IV. Not just her state of good condition after such a long period in storage, but also the quality of the original construction by Dassault. Like other aircraft in our Cold War Jet collection, it is remarkable to think that this aircraft was built in the early years of supersonic jet flight. A truly remarkable and beautiful piece of aircraft design and engineering.

As work progressed after adding the wings, there were several special moments that seemed to mark milestones as our Mirage began to return to life. The first was without doubt gently lowering the jet onto her main undercarriage for the first time in many years. With the jacks removed, she once again began to look like a supersonic strike aircraft.

The second moment was late on an afternoon when the team added the nose cone and refuelling probe. Suddenly, with those components in place, our Mirage had a face once again and became not just a project, but finally looked like a complete, recognisable aircraft.

After an eleven hour day loading the Mirage IV and all of the associated support equipment, the drivers from Sarrion were glad to be finally on the road. They drove just a few kilometres away to a nearby truck stop for the night. The following morning, they set off in a six vehicle convoy comprising of two standard trucks, two support escort vehicles and the two Convoi Exceptionnel loads carrying the aircraft.

Heading across the French countryside on a sunny spring morning, not on the Peage toll routes as you may expect, but cutting across country using the French D Roads, the convoy made surprisingly rapid progress. The rear wheel steering system of the trucks made them surprisingly agile around the many small roundabouts and by lunchtime they had made good progress.

A French roadside truck halt was an education for us, as the drivers enjoyed an aperitif before sitting down to a three course lunch of classic French dishes that anyone would have been happy to eat. All for the price of a fast food meal in the UK. We couldn’t help but think that they were in for a surprise at UK motorway services.

Following an overnight wait, at Le Harve, the two trucks carrying the aircraft were loaded onto the Brittany Ferries sailing from Le Harve to Portsmouth. Brittany Ferries were extremely helpful, allowing us to film and photograph the loading as well as broadcasting a Facebook Live directly from the loading ramp of the ship. If you missed the live feed, you can view it below.

Having arrived in the UK late on Wednesday, the two drivers met with a UK escort vehicle and set off from Portsmouth for what turned out to be a challenging day. Just a few miles into the journey, the convoy was stopped for an inspection by UK Driving Standards Agency. A two hour roadside battle with British bureaucracy followed.

Apparently the failure to pre pay a £10 per day ‘road tax’ for the vehicles triggered a fine of £300 per vehicle, on the spot. With no way to pay from France, the Museum team of director Ian Reed and French speaking Sandrine Bauchet talked through the frustrations and eventually the Museum paid the fine, with Sarrion transferring funds to us. All good to go, until a Government inspector says, ‘Yes, but. What about the £10 per day tax…….?” It was going to be a long day.

Eventually, in the early evening of 30th March and just missing a live TV broadcast slot thanks to the two hour delay and argument with UK Driving Standards Agency, our Mirage finally arrived at the Museum. The media crews were on hand to record the event for evening news, plus we were able to live stream the arrival on Facebook. If you missed the stream you can catch up in the video below.

The following morning at 7:00 AM, with the clock ticking on our expensive trucking assets, a volunteer team of our engineers from the Museum under the direction of Heritage engineer Gary Hancock swung into action to finally unload our Mirage with assistance of our ever enthusiastic French drivers and a huge crane from Central Crane Hire of Hull.

By 9;30, the aircraft was sitting on British soil in the grounds of the Museum and the drivers headed south for a long drive back to HQ at La Rochelle. At the Museum, our team began preparations for the process of re-assembling the Mirage IV for public display.

On 2nd April, David Dron, one of our French volunteers will arrive to begin the process of fitting together our Mirage and setting her onto those long undercarriage legs ready for public display at the Museum and an official handover ceremony very soon.

After a complex process spanning more than ten years, our Mirage IV was successfully loaded on Monday 27th of March at Chateaudun Air Base in France. The whole loading process took more than ten hours as two trucks of support equipment were filled, followed by the Mirage IV fuselage on one truck then wings and tail onto a second Convoi Exceptionell.

We broadcast part of the loading process live on our Facebook page which was then saved for everyone to view later. You can view one of the loading videos here.

Here are some images showing the team loading the Mirage throughout the day, then the all important paperwork as the aircraft is officially signed over to the Museum.

As the convoy drove north towards Le Harve, they stopped for a lunch break. Here’s a short clip that shows the all wheel steer system of the trucks working

We will be adding more images and video as we cover the Mirage arrival at the Museum so keep in touch via our social media channels and check back at this website for more.

This week, our team of French engineering volunteers and French Air Force staff have been preparing the Mirage for loading next week. Here’s some images that show the Mirage in France as she is prepared for the journey to Elvington.

The final route to Elvington will be online very soon, so follow us on social media to keep up to date and see if you can spot her en-route

Many people are unaware just how few Mirage IV aircraft remain on public display today. Our Mirage IV serial Number 45 was previously on display in the huge Cite de Sciences Museum in Paris. There, the aircraft was a majestic backdrop to the technology area of this massive tourist attraction. There are just a handful of other aircraft on display in France and none outside of the country. Number 45 will be the first Mirage IV ever to be on display outside of France.

The Museum staff have been incredibly helpful in providing us with historic images that show the Mirage IV being removed from the Museum at the end of the exhibition. These images show her being dismantled and loaded onto trucks in a similar operation to the one we will be undertaking on 27th March 2017 to move the aircraft from secure storage at a French Air Force base outside of Paris to our Museum in North Yorkshire.