Manufacturer: Avions Marcel Dassault - BA

Model: unknown

Name: Etendard IV U

Type: Jet fighter

Date: 1973

Status: Service test

Country: United States of America

Service: U.S. Navy

Designation: YF-13A

In 1973, the U.S. Navy eyed over the Atlantic to the French Etendard IV. Although there was no question of procuring the type, the Naval Air Warfare Test Center (located at Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland) requested two examples of the type from Avions Marcel Dassault - Bréguet Aviation (AMD-BA) for use in various electronic warfare evaluation tests and battle simulation exercises.

Breaking the usual superstitious practice of skipping the number "13", the Navy requested that, since the aircraft needed a temporary designation, the type be given the F-13 designation since there would be no more than the two aircraft leased by Dassault, and they would be returned after two years.

Quite logically, the YF-13A was called the "Standard" but this was never used, and each aircraft received a nickname which became its call name, being refered to respectively as "Tough Guy" and "Plain Jane". The former was lost at sea after a failed landing, killing its pilot Robert F. Jincks, while the latter kept accumulating electric mishaps and electronic trouble throughout its service.

After returning it to France in July 1975, the Department of Defense specifically issued a memo which made the use of the number "13" permanently banned from all official military designations.

For this image I simply took the photo of an Etendard IVM on deck (see below right) which I reworked by removing the French markings and applying American ones.