''The Aeronauts'' was a French children's TV series about two fighter jet pilots in

French Air Force The French Air and Space Force (AAE) (french: Armée de l'air et de l'espace, ) is the air and space force of the French Armed Forces. It was the first military aviation force in history, formed in 1909 as the , a service arm of the French Army; ...

, Michel Tanguy (Jacques Santi) and Ernest Laverdure (Christian Marin) and their adventures. It was based on a comic book series by Jean-Michel Charlier and

Albert Uderzo Alberto Aleandro Uderzo (; ; 25 April 1927 – 24 March 2020), better known as Albert Uderzo, was a French comic book artist and scriptwriter. He is best known as the co-creator and illustrator of the ''Astérix'' series in collaboration with Re ...

titled ''

Tanguy et Laverdure ''Les Aventures de Tanguy et Laverdure'' is a Franco-Belgian comics (''bande dessinée'') series created by Jean-Michel Charlier and Albert Uderzo, about the two pilots Michel Tanguy and Ernest Laverdure, and their adventures in the French Air For ...

''. The fighter aircraft featured were the

Dassault Mystère IV The Dassault MD.454 Mystère IV is a 1950s French fighter-bomber aircraft, the first transonic aircraft to enter service with the French Air Force. It was used in large-scale combat in the Israeli Air Force during the 1967 Six Day War. Design ...

and

Dassault Mirage III The Dassault Mirage III () is a family of single/dual-seat, single-engine, fighter aircraft developed and manufactured by French aircraft company Dassault Aviation. It was the first Western European combat aircraft to exceed Mach 2 in horizonta ...

. Made by French production company

Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française L'Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (ORTF; ) was the national agency charged, between 1964 and 1975, with providing public radio and television in France. All programming, and especially news broadcasts, were under strict control ...

(ORTF) between 1967 and 1970, its original French title was ''Les chevaliers du ciel'' ("The Knights of the Sky"). The three seasons were originally filmed in colour but the first season was broadcast on French TV from September 1967 in black and white, as French television was only in black and white at the time. All three seasons were later released in colour when the series appeared in a 6-DVD box in the early 2000s. This 6-DVD set is now sold out and used copies fetch high prices. It was dubbed into English, retitled ''The Aeronauts'' and shown by the BBC on UK children's TV, and in Canada on the CBC, in the early 1970s. In 1972 Rick Jones released a single of the anglicised theme tune. In 1976 a version dubbed into

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

and titled ''Mirage'', was shown by the

SABC The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is the public broadcaster in South Africa, and provides 19 radio stations ( AM/ FM) as well as six television broadcasts to the general public. It is one of the largest of South Africa's state ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

Actors

Jacques Santi Jacques Santi (11 March 1939 – 29 March 1988) was a French film producer from Paris, France. He was an actor best known for roles such as Bob Morane (1961), The Aeronauts (1967). He was also nominated for a César Award a major French film ...

as Michel Tanguy *

Christian Marin Christian Marin (8 February 1929 – 5 September 2012) was a French film actor. Born in Lyon, he is best known for his role in ''Le gendarme series'' (as "Merlot"), although he did not appear in the last two sequels. In 1967 he appeared in the tel ...

as Ernest Laverdure *

Michèle Girardon Michèle Girardon (9 August 1938 – 25 March 1975), sometimes credited as Michele Girardon, was a French actress. Career Born in Lyon, France, Girardon began acting as early as 1956, and had a small but noticeable role as a deaf-mute bea ...

as Nicole *

Valéry Inkijinoff Valery Ivanovich Inkizhinov (russian: Валерий Иванович Инкижинов; 25 March 1895 – 26 September 1973), known as Valéry Inkijinoff, was a Russian actor, director and acting teacher. Born to a Buryat family in Irkutsk, h ...

as Mr X. * Ian Ireland as Stève Lester *

Gabriel Gascon Gabriel Gascon (8 January 1927 – 30 May 2018) was a Canadian stage and film actor. Born in Montreal, Quebec to parents Charles-Auguste Gascon and Marie-Rose Dubuc, Gascon began his acting career after joining the Compagnons de Saint-Laurent_with ...

as Louis Gagnon

Series 1

External links

*
Theme tune for the UK presentation
1960s French television series French children's television series Aviation television series Military television series Television series based on Belgian comics Television series based on French comics {{France-tv-prog-stub

Actors

Series 1

See also

External links