What is this "Supersonic French" aircraft?

Question

To celebrate Bastille Day, Ubisoft released the below (2D) in-game charm for their game, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege.

Despite frantic searching on Wikipedia, I cannot for the life of me figure out what aircraft the charm is based on, or if indeed a real-world equivalent exists at all. At first it looked like a Rafale, but the vertical stabilizer does not seem to fit any that I could find an image of.

It's not a question of life and death, but I would very much be interested in what aircraft is actually portrayed here.

The rafale would have canards anyway. Anything mirage would be supersonic but delta winged. They don't look like the Jaguar or the endenard/super endenard — Journeyman Geek, Jul 11 '20 at 02:41
@ManuH The naming used by Ubisoft is misleading; Alpha Jet is not indeed supersonic, but whoever responsible for naming at Ubisoft decided to name it as such. — V-J, Jul 11 '20 at 21:14
The "Patrouille de France" (aerobatic section of French Air Force) flies over Champs-Elysées on each July 14th (aka "Bastille day" elsewhere), the national day, to close the aerial military parade. They have Alpha-Jet currently, recognizable to their pronounced anhedral wing for reduced stability. — mins, Jul 12 '20 at 12:25
@mins I though anhedral wing where meant to improve stability as discussed in this answer — Manu H, Jul 13 '20 at 17:19
@ManuH: "The combination of aft sweep and high-wing configuration together achieve so much stability that it has to be counteracted with an anhedral" (source, p 7-37). Many fighters have a negative dihedral angle for agility. Sweep (and twist) also affects the stability (according to Raymer 1° of dihedral is equivalent to 10° of sweep). (you can visualize the recovery effect of the dihedral/anhedral here). — mins, Jul 13 '20 at 19:25

score 22 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 11 '20 at 06:42

22

I believe this is the Alpha Jet

Source of pictures: Wikipedia

It is famously used by the Patrouille de France (the French military acrobatic demonstration unit). They are most famous for overflying the Champs-Élysées during the July 14 celebration, drawing a French flag in the sky.

edited Jul 11 '20 at 06:42

Rodrigo de Azevedo

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answered Jul 10 '20 at 13:59

Ron Beyer

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It is the Alphajet, and contrary to the OP, it is not supersonic – DeepSpace Jul 10 '20 at 14:07
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This is the correct answer – Quentin H Jul 10 '20 at 14:09
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Actually contrary to Ubisoft, they named it such for whatever reason ;) Seems like it would be the Alpha Jet indeed, the vertical stabilizer is just modelled different for whatever copyright reason. Thanks! – V-J Jul 10 '20 at 14:10
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Added some context to explain the choice. Feel free to roll back/edit. – Antzi Jul 10 '20 at 15:40
@Antzi I left the bulk of it in there just for esoteric reasons, but it doesn't explain why I chose that aircraft. I chose it based on the appearance and that it's an aircraft used by the French military. – Ron Beyer Jul 10 '20 at 16:43
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Actually.... pretty sure someone just traced an image of a model of the alpha jet from an online gift store for the patrouille. Sneaky sneaky :D – Journeyman Geek Jul 11 '20 at 02:50
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Re above-- nice find; deserves to be incorporated into an answer. – quiet flyer Jul 11 '20 at 13:34
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@JourneymanGeek Ubisoft is so lazy – DKNguyen Jul 11 '20 at 18:23
I suppose this is why aerospace engineers stick to engineering and video game creators stick to creating videogames. – Ryan Mortensen Jul 12 '20 at 03:41

What is this "Supersonic French" aircraft?

1 Answers1