Ground running began in late July of 1962 and tethered testing followed in October of that year. At this time, the undercarriage remained fixed for simplicity's sake. On October 18th, the first untethered flight was accomplished and several more untethered flights followed before the end of the year and the aircraft was finally given a fully-fledged retractable undercarriage arrangement to test traditional horizontal flight envelopes - the first such flight recorded on March 2nd, 1963. On March 18th, the aircraft completed its first vertical-to-horizontal flight conversion test and landed in a conventional fashion on the runway. A successful horizontal-to-vertical landing action was made on March 28th. Modifications instituted during 1963-1964 added a unique short take-off capability by way of deflectors installed - the Balzac now showcases short-field take-off qualities.
The aircraft program proceeded with nary a setback until January 10th, 1964 when the aircraft turned over during a hovering action and landed on its dorsal spine. The pilot, Jacques Pinier, ultimately died from his injuries. The accident was blamed on a loss of control due to the autostabilization system. Despite being damaged and its test pilot killed, the Balzac airframe was saved to move the program along into 1965.
The Balzac completed some additional evaluation flights before a September 1965 accident once again threatened the project. At this point, the Balzac was part of a VTOL technology exchange between the French and the Americans. USAF pilot P.E. Neale was at the controls during a low hovering action which went awry. He managed to eject prior to the airframe crashing from a total engine flameout, but died when impacting the ground as he had ejected under the recommended altitude minimum. Unlike the first accident, this one was to claim both pilot and aircraft - ending the Balzac program in full.
Dassault was to continue further research into VTOL aircraft through its new Mirage IIIV offering. Two of the type were ultimately built and these based largely on the work already completed through the Balzac (including its independent lift/push engine arrangement). First flight was on February 12th, 1965 and the aircraft was developed along the lines of a new NATO VTOL aircraft requirement but was not adopted before the end.
Despite the loss of both life and aircraft - always the unwritten price to be paid for pioneering development aircraft - the Balzac provided important insight into VTOL flight for the French. For warplanners, the future was always full of supersonic fighter jets holding an inherent helicopter-like capability. While this would not be truly realized until the adoption of the British Harrier jet, it fell to aircraft like the French Balzac to help further the concept along, ensuring that the sacrifices emerging from such programs would never be forgotten and ultimately realized in fully-flying forms.
Content ©MilitaryFactory.com; No Reproduction Permitted.