The Leduc 022 was the prototype of a mixed-power French interceptor built in the mid-1950s. Designer René Leduc had been developing ramjet-powered aircraft since before World War II and had flown a series of experimental aircraft, the Leduc 0.10 and Leduc 0.21, throughout the Fifties before he was awarded a contract for two examples of a short-range supersonic interceptor.
source/image(PrtSc): Found And Explained
The aircraft was provided with approximately 2,728-litre (600 imp gal; 721 US gal) of fuel distributed between the fuselage, wings and wingtip tanks. Its intended armament consisted of a pair of Nord AA.20 guided missiles and 24 anti-aircraft rockets. Watch the video from Found And Explained:
Unlike all previous Leduc aircraft, it featured a coaxial turbojet-ramjet powerplant to enable unassisted operation. The turbojet was initially a 15 kN (3,400 lbf) Turbomeca Ossau engine, but this was changed during construction to a much more powerful 31.3 kN (7,000 lbf) SNECMA Atar 101D-3.This change caused the aircraft to be redesignated as the 022 and allowed the number of rockets to be increased to 40.
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First flown on 26 December 1956 on turbojet power alone, the ramjet was finally fired on the 34th flight, on 18 May 1957. It reached a speed of Mach 1.15 on 21 December 1957, but was damaged shortly afterwards when it caught fire while taking off. Construction of a second prototype had been cancelled in October and the flight testing contract was cancelled on 13 February 1958 after 141 flights had been made./source
