IAI Kfir

what is it?

The Israel Aircraft Industries Kfir (Hebrew: כְּפִיר, lit. 'Lion Cub') is an Israeli all-weather multirole combat aircraft based on the French Dassault Mirage 5, with Israeli avionics and an Israeli license-built version of the General Electric J79 turbojet engine (J79-J1E).

🔎How to recognise it: 1 jet engine · 8.2 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 2,440 km/htop speed
• size 16.5 tmax take-off weight
• built 220made in total

Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).

fun facts

• 🎂First flew 57 years ago, in 1969.
• 🏎️Top speed is 18.8× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 💥Faster than sound: up to Mach 2.0 (sea-level speed of sound ≈ 1,235 km/h).
• 🐘Fully loaded it can weigh as much as 3 African elephants (~6 t each).
• 🏔️Can fly 2.0× higher than Mount Everest (8,849 m).

jet: Gas turbine pushing air out the back (turbofan or turbojet): fast and high-flying.

spec sheet

first flight

1969

introduced

1975

status

still flying

number built

220

role

fighter-bomber, multirole combat aircraft

origin

🇮🇱 Israel

makers

Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd

engines

1× IAl Bedek-built General Electric J79-J1E

crew

1

length

15.7 m

wingspan

8.2 m

height

4.6 m

max take-off weight

16.5 t

top speed

2,440 km/h

range

—

ceiling

17,680 m

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.

family