A HISTORY-making French aircraft has finally arrived at Yorkshire Air Museum - after nine years of negotiations.

Général Lesellier, representing the Chief of the French Armee de l’Air, formally presented the Elvington centre with an Mirage IV A BR No 45.

In 1991, the strategic nuclear bomber was the last of its type to take to the air.

Among those who supported the museum in the years of negotiations leading up to the bomber’s arrival were the British Queen, three prime ministers and many cabinet ministers and MPs.

The ceremony was part of a day of pageantry and commemoration which included a drum head service, act of remembrance and a parade of service association standards with the Yorkshire Military Marching Band and Corps of Drums.

It was attended by representatives of nine Allied countries.

The museum’s director Ian Reed said: “This will be the only example of this amazing aircraft on display to the public outside France, making it a very special part of our collection of historic aircraft.”

The Mirage IV A BR first flew on May 6, 1966 with Elie Buge, who was the first non-commissioned officer to cross the sound barrier, and Jean Cuny on board.

It was delivered to the French air force on June 3 the same year and completed more than 6,300 hours of flying and nearly 3,000 landings.

It was the last Mirage IV A ever to fly when it took to the air for the last time on September 11, 1991.

In 2007 French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s government first offered the museum a Mirage IV bomber in recognition of Elvington Airfield’s wartime French connection.

French squadrons based at RAF Elvington during the Second World War later went on to fly the Mirage IV.

International defence treaties, the nature of the aircraft and the status of the museum as a private, not a Government, institute, meant that it took nine years of negotiations before the historic transfer to Elvington could finally be arranged.

The formal agreement was not signed until July 27, 2016, and the logistics of moving the 77-foot-long aircraft by land meant it did not arrive in North Yorkshire until earlier this year.