Dassault Mirage III

The Dassault Mirage III (French pronunciation: ​[miʁaʒ]) is a family of single-seat, single-engine, fighter aircraft produced by Dassault Aviation for the French Air Force and widely exported. Prominent operators included Australia, Argentina, South Africa, Pakistan and Israel, as well as a number of nonaligned nations. Though an older design, the second generation fighter is still a fairly maneuverable aircraft and an effective opponent in close range dogfighting. In French service it was armed with air-to-ground ordnance or R.550 Magic air-to-air missiles.

The versatility of the design enabled production of trainer, reconnaissance and ground-attack versions as well as the Dassault Mirage 5, Dassault Mirage IIIV and Atlas Cheetah variants. A Mirage III was the first Western European combat aircraft to exceed Mach 2 in horizontal flight.

Development

Origins

The Mirage III family grew out of French government studies began in 1952 that led in early 1953 to a specification for a lightweight, all-weather interceptor capable of climbing to 18,000 meters (59,100 ft) in six minutes and able to reach Mach 1.3 in level flight. Dassault's response to the specification was the MD.550 Mystère-Delta, a diminutive and sleek jet that was to be powered by two 9.61 kN (2,160 lbf) Armstrong Siddeley MD30R Viper afterburning turbojets, with a SEPR 66 liquid-fuel rocket engine to provide boost thrust of 4.7 kN (1,100 lbf). The aircraft had a tailless delta configuration, with 5% thickness (ratio of airfoil thickness to length) and 60° sweep.