On this day.............

[Angry Turnip]

1976 ...First flight of the Dassault Falcon 50

[smudge]

In the md-1970s Dassault found a clever way of building confidence amongst potential American customers who were wary of buying a Frenchie jet.  Their Falcon Jet subsidiary in Teterboro bought an old C-47 and converted it to carry spares and engines to any customer site:

https://abpic.co.uk/pictures/full_size_0196/1295714-large.jpg

C-47DL N47FJ cn 9053, started life as 42-32827 and paticipated in operations Husky, Avalanche, Overlord and Market Garden:

http://www.airbornetroopcarrier.com/c-47%2042-32872%20313th%20tcg%20part%202.html

Seemed to work a treat as when they announced the Falcon 50 in 1975 there were a slew of deposits from US customers, each of whom was flown to Dassault's plant in Bordeaux to be wined and dined and shown the mock-up.