Hobby Master Archive

In 1973 the French Air Force created the squadron EC 4/11 “Jura” equipped with 12 F-100Ds. They were based near the Red Sea at Air Base 188, in the French protectorate of Djibouti. On May 24,1978 Jura’s F-100Ds had flown 100,000 hours so to commemorate this an aircraft was painted with a shark’s mouth. It was so popular that the remaining 11 F-100Ds were given the same paint scheme and were referred to as the “Sharks of the Red Sea”. The F-100Ds were replaced by Mirage IIIs in 1978.