French Dassault Mirage 2000B at RAF Leuchars, Fife. Scotland. GAV 2116-211
The delta-winged Dassault "Mirage III / 5" series of fighters were one of Europe's first operational supersonic combat aircraft, and proved popular in French and export service. Their success led Dassault to produce a next-generation fighter, the "Mirage 2000", with a similar configuration, though it was in fact an entirely new design. It would prove successful as well. The new and powerful SNECMA M53 low-bypass afterburning turbofan engine, which had been developed for the ACF, was available for the Mirage 2000, but radar development threatened to be a critical path. Despite such obstacles, Marcel Dassault felt that a prototype could be flying in a year and a half, with operational introduction in 1982. In fact, the program was delayed. Initial flight of the first prototype was on 10 March 1978, with Jean Coreau at the controls. The first production example flew on 20 November 1982, and operational service was finally attained in 1984. However, by the standards of modern defense programs that was not all that big a schedule slip. Using the delta wing configuration seemed to many like a backward step. Dassault had used that configuration on the Mirage III and 5, but abandoned it for the Mirage F1. A delta wing tends to be a good choice in terms of high-speed flight characteristics, simplicity of aircraft construction, relatively low radar signature, and internal volume. It tends to be a poor choice in terms of maneuverability, low-altitude flight, and length of take-off and landing run. Dassault engineers managed to bring the delta wing up to date by moving the aircraft's center of lift to the front of its center of gravity, giving the fighter a degree of instability that enhanced maneuverability. This also reduced the takeoff run: in the older Mirage deltas, lowering the elevons on takeoff to increase lift would push the aircraft's nose back down, but shifting the center of lift eliminated this problem.
Size: 6181px × 3953px
Location: RAF Leuchars, Fife. Scotland. United Kingdom.
Photo credit: © David Gowans / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: -seat, ., 000, 1, 1970s, , 8, 11, 2000b, 2000bs, 2340kph, 2fh-511, 30, 1980., 2000, acquired, ada, aeroplane, afterburning, air, aircraft, attack, aviation, aviation., based, ceiling, close, conversion, dassault, delta, designed, developed, dijon, ect2/2sqn, evolved, fast, fighter, flew, force, fourth-generation, french, iii, jet, late, lightweight, m53-p2, mach, manufactured, maximum, military, mirage, multirole, nations., number, obtained, october, operational, powerplant, reconnaissance, registration, sales, seat, serial, single-engine, snecma, speed, supersonic, support, tactical, trainer, training., turbofan, variant, variants, weather, wing, wings, ×
