COBI Mirage 2000-5 Set 5917

COBI's Mirage 2000-5F is a 1:48 model built from 494 blocks, 30.5 cm long, in blue-and-white French Air Force camouflage. The ailerons move, the wheels roll on rubber tires, the canopy opens for a pilot figure, and MICA guided missiles are fitted. A display stand with a transparent support arm and an information plate are included. All markings are printed; no stickers.

The stork on the tail

The bird painted on the fin is not decoration. It is one of the oldest unit emblems in military aviation.

The Escadrille des Cigognes — the Stork Squadron — was formed in the First World War and became the most celebrated French fighter unit of that conflict. Its pilots included Georges Guynemer, who was rejected five times as physically unfit before he got into the air force, finished with 53 victories, and disappeared over Belgium in September 1917 with no wreck ever found.

The stork has been carried by French fighter units continuously ever since, through the Second World War, through the jet age, and onto the Mirage 2000 and the Rafale. Each squadron of the tradition has its own variant of the bird, posed differently.

If you also have COBI's set 2997, you have Guynemer's Nieuport 17 — the aircraft on which that emblem was earned.

The 2000-5

The Mirage 2000 kept the delta wing of the earlier Mirages and solved their central weakness with a computer: a delta wing has excellent high-speed performance and unpleasant low-speed behaviour, and fly-by-wire controls compensated for it continuously.

The 2000-5 is the modernised multi-role version, with RDY radar, MICA missiles and a helmet-mounted sight. French aircraft upgraded to this standard are designated 2000-5F.

In the COBI range

Set 5901 is the Rafale C, the aircraft that replaced it, and 2997 the Nieuport 17 of Georges Guynemer.

Specifications

Pieces: 494 · Figures: 1 pilot · Scale: 1:48 · Age: 8+ · No stickers
Model dimensions: 30.5 × 21 × 11.5 cm (12.0 × 8.3 × 4.5 in), 15 cm high on the stand