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Thanks to their long range, Israeli Vautours could reach targets beyond the reach of other types. Even then, most such missions had to be flown at high altitude to conserve fuel. Because of this requirement, their participation in the opening air strikes was limited to one strike against Beni Suweif AB: even that mission had to be launched from the slightly closer Tel Nov rather than from their home base at Ramat David, intended to be on target at 09.10hrs, local time, a full 20 minutes after H-Hour. This jet was assigned to the flight in question, but its pilot was forced to abort due to the failure of the canopy lock system: instead of attacking Beni Suweif, it returned to Ramat David where it was quickly repaired and back in action only two hours later. (Artwork by Tom Cooper)