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By: 29th May 2004 at 15:43 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-Dooing a little google, i woul say in french, i propose:
http://aircraftstories.free.fr/mono/4000/pages/pages.htm
in english:
By: 29th May 2004 at 20:01 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-It was supposed to be superior to F-15.
But as almost no or few FCS was ever installed on it then it is pure speculation.
However aerodynamic tests have been made and the plane had very very good behaviors both in lift/drag ratio and high lift.
It would have been a serious opponent to SU-27 and F-15 as it was more balanced than thoses one on the whole flight portion(from subsonic to supersonic).
By: 29th May 2004 at 20:29 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-This plane was too expensive.
By: 29th May 2004 at 22:10 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-yes as it seemed it was unaffordable to France. How much did it cost though?
By: 29th May 2004 at 23:06 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-about the same price than an F-15 at this time.
The problem was not that france could not afford it, it was that mirage 2000 program was seen as prioritary by the french governement so the developpement of mirage 4000 was a dassault effort only.
Because of that, the only was for dassault was to sell it to foreingers but because french state did not want this plane then there were no chances.
It served to test a lot of systems that are on the Rafale now.
By: 30th May 2004 at 01:00 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-The only aircraft built is now preserved at the Le Bourget museum.
By: 30th May 2004 at 01:34 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-It certainly is a pretty airplane.
Didn't Dassault attempt to market it to the Middle East?
I thought I remembered seeing photographs of the airplane painted in a desert-type paint scheme with I believe six R.550's underwing.
By: 30th May 2004 at 11:28 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-It certainly is a pretty airplane.Didn't Dassault attempt to market it to the Middle East?
I thought I remembered seeing photographs of the airplane painted in a desert-type paint scheme with I believe six R.550's underwing.
you're talking about this picture i guess :
there you'll find more informations ( google translation, not the best but well... )
Super Mirage 4000
By: 30th May 2004 at 13:11 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-Wonder if the Indian Airforce would buy a M3K'ed instead of the M2K currently offered. I.e. all the avionics, engine upgrades etc that were ment for the 4K
By: 30th May 2004 at 14:42 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-Wonder if the Indian Airforce would buy a M3K'ed instead of the M2K currently offered. I.e. all the avionics, engine upgrades etc that were ment for the 4K
There wasn't that any difference in engine between the Mirage 2000 and 4000. The 4000 only ever got the M53-5 (it never got the M53-P2 that laters Mirage 2000s got). The M4K program never got far along enough to develop its own avionics, it pretty much just used avionics from the M2K program e.g the prototype 4000 used the same RDM radar as the 2000.
By: 30th May 2004 at 14:48 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-It certainly is a pretty airplane.Didn't Dassault attempt to market it to the Middle East?
I thought I remembered seeing photographs of the airplane painted in a desert-type paint scheme with I believe six R.550's underwing.
After the AdA didn't show any interest in the Mirage 4000, Dassault attempted to market it to the Saudis. They showed some interest, but eventually succumbed to US pressure and bought the F-15 instead.
By: Anonymous (not verified) - 29th May 2004 at 14:37
what happened to the Mirage 4000 that France produced in the 1980s? are any still flying as research aircraft or is the thing consigned to the history books? could France not have used the 4000 insted of the Rafale? how did the 4000 compare to the F-15 Eagle and Su-27 Flanker? has anyone got any good info or pictures of the Mirage 4000? it seemed a good airplane in its time.