Service History

The Fouga Magister first entered military service in France at Salon de Provence on 28th May 1956 and was used by Patrouille de France from 1956 to 1980. As a jet trainer it was from 1994 progressively replaced by the Embraer Tucano and the Dessault/Dornier Alpha Jets. The last Magister was phased out in France from military service in 1996. In total more than 2 mio hours were flown by the Fouga Magister in its French military life.

The German Air Force ordered 234 Fouga Magisters of which 194 were build in Germany. They were in service from 1957 to 1969 and were used by the German aerobatic display team. The German Air Force has later ­ like Denmark - trained its pilots in Canada or US on CL41 Tutor or Cessna T37.

The Belgian Air Force introduced the Fouga Magister in 1958 and in total 50 were aquired. Fouga Magisters were used by the Belgian Airshow display team, "The Red Devils" and in "Fouga Magister Solo Display". 10 remains in service and are planned to continue until 2005. For initial jet training the Fougas have been replaced by Dessault/Dornier Alpha Jets. The Royal Netherlands Air Force trained pilots on Fougas in Belgium from 1962 to 1971. The Finnish Air Force used 80 Fouga Magisters from 1958 to 1988; of these 62 were produced in Finland. The Finnish Fougas were replaced by British Aerospace Hawks Ireland has used Fouga Magisters from 1974 for pilot training and for the display team "The Silver Swallows".

Ireland retired their last 5 five Fouga Magisters in September 2000 and trains its pilots in Canada or US.

The Austrian Air Force acquired 18 Fouga Magisters in 1958 and they have used them for their aerobatics display team.

In Israel 100+ were built and 40 Fouga Magisters are still in use. They are planned to be withdrawn in 2005.

Apart from the mentioned countries Fouga Magisters have served with airforces in Algeria, Bangladesh, Brazil, Cambodia, Cameroon, Gabon, Guatemala, Lebanon, Lebya, Morocco, Rwanda, Salvador, Senegal, Togo and Uganda.

In 1996 some 380 Fouga Magisters were still in the inventory of 14 air forces, and the first civil customers appeared mainly within the US plus UK and France in 1996. In February 2001 a total of 95 Fouga Magisters were in military service (Belgium 10, Cameroon 6, El Salvador 6, Gabon 3, Israel 40, Lebanon 5, Morocco 20, Senegal 5). Approx. 50 Fougas are civil operated (Denmark 1, Finland 2, France 3, Netherlands 4, New Zealand 1, and US approx. 40). One example, from Finland, is flying with The US Airforce Test Pilots School.

Fouga Magisters, which can be fitted with two 7.5 mm machine guns in the nose and several combinations of under wing rocket pods, freefall bombs and Nord AS.11 air-to-surface missiles, have been in combat in two periods. One was during the Six Day War in June 1967 when Israeli Fougas flew ground attack missions in Egypt and Jordan ­ it is said that one downed a MIG21 - the other was attack missions flown by Fougas during the Congo crisis in Katanga 1961.