SNCASE Baroudeur

The SNCASE S.E.5000 Baroudeur (French: Adventurer or French Foreign Legion slang for 'brawling soldier') was a single-engined lightweight fighter designed and produced by the French aircraft manufacturer SNCASE (Sud-Est). Development was initiated in response to difficulties encountered operating conventional jet fighters during the Korean War, which motivated the firm to work on the aircraft as a private venture. The Baroudeur differed from most fighters of the era by being designed to operate from austere grass airstrips and with minimised take-off and landing distances, as opposed to increasingly lengthy runways. The Baroudeur was a relatively unorthodox design due to it intentionally lacking any conventional landing gear, instead using a wheeled trolley during take-off while landing was performing on three retractable skids. On 1 August 1953, the first prototype performed its maiden flight. Two prototypes and three pre-production aircraft, designated S.E.5003, were produced. The Baroudeur was competitively evaluated for the NATO Basic Military Requirement 1 (NBMR-1), which sought a common "Light Weight Strike Fighter". The French Air Ministry also showed some interest in the aircraft. However, it was not selected to fulfil NBMR-1, nor did any other customers place orders for the type; consequently, the Baroudeur did not progress beyond the prototype phase of development.

Summary from Wikipedia, photo via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA.