Photo by TSGT CURT EDDINGS

The Dassault Mirage operational career spans 50 years in its many variants: mid 1950s until 2014. By modern standards, the aircraft design is exceptionally simple yet particularly capable.

[The Mirage III] was the first French aircraft to incorporate area rule technology and the first to exceed Mach 1.5 in flight. Nevertheless, Dassault employed only 14 engineers and draftsmen in its design and only 70 shop fabricators in its assembly…. The pre-production Mirage III A, which first flew in May 1958 reached a speed of Mach 2.2 and an altitude of 82,000 feet one month later. It differed from the earlier prototype chiefly in having an improved flight control system and somewhat more powerful Atar engine. [1]

The design time to first flight was an astonishing 9 months [1]. Dassault’s design groups operated on an incremental modification and prototype strategy. Designs failing to reach viability or exhibiting increasing risk were terminated cheaply and quickly (i.e. Mirage III G, variable sweep version). The Mirage was sold worldwide for many decades.

[1] R. Perry, A Prototype Strategy for Aircraft Development (RM-5597-1-PR), RAND, 1972.