Fouga Magister 'French, Belgian and Irish Service'

The successful French Fouga CM.170 Magister lightweight jet trainer found its origins in a powered glider design of all-metal construction called the C.M.8.15 which sported a butterfly style tail empennage and was designed by P.Mauboussin and J.Szydlowski. This turbojet-powered glider flew for the first time in 1949 and during development of this design a number of test machines emerged including a unique twin-fuselage aircraft designated as the Gemeaux. The final stage of development of the C.M.8.15 glider led to the CM.170 Magister which was designed to meet an Armée de l´Air specification and like the powered gliders which preceded it this also sported a distinctive butterfly-type empennage.
An initial order for three prototype Magisters was made, the first of which made its maiden flight on 23 July, 1952 and as the performance was found to be acceptable this led to a follow on order for a batch of ten pre production aircraft. As per usual most of the prototype and pre production aircraft were used for testing of various components and improvements which would later be incorporated into full production airframes, the only exception to this was the second prototype which at the request of the military was modified to accept a standard fin and tailplanes. However as the flying characteristics in this configuration were found to be no better, all subsequent machines continued to feature the trademark butterfly tail. As well as serving with the French military the Magister was also an export success for Fouga which sold the type to a multitude of foreign operators and it was even built under licence in three countries. Within Europe the Magister was flown by France, Belgium, Austria and Ireland but there were also many other operators worldwide in Africa, Asia and South America, many of whom were no doubt attracted by its lightweight design and low operating costs. Among these far flung operators were countries such as Algeria, Bangladesh, Biafra, Brazil, El Salvador, Libya, Morocco, Togo and Uganda. Some Fougas are still flying these days, many of them in civilian hands.

Further variants of the basic Magister design concept were also proposed but most remained on the drawing board as paper projects or did not proceed past the prototype stages.