High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Mordechai "Modi" Alon (January 17, 1921 – October 16, 1948) was an Israeli fighter pilot who with the formation of the Israeli Air Force in May 1948, assumed command of its first fighter squadron. Flying the Avia S-199, Alon participated in the IAF`s first combat sortie on May 29, 1948, and on June 3 scored the IAF`s very first aerial victories, downing a pair of Royal Egyptian Air Force C-47s over Tel-Aviv.