The Dassault Mirage G was a French two-seat

twinjet A twinjet or twin-engine jet is a jet aircraft powered by two engines. A twinjet is able to fly well enough to land with a single working engine, making it safer than a single-engine aircraft in the event of failure of an engine. Fuel efficien ...

variable-geometry The wing configuration of a fixed-wing aircraft (including both gliders and powered aeroplanes) is its arrangement of lifting and related surfaces. Aircraft designs are often classified by their wing configuration. For example, the Supermarin ...

prototype fighter, built by

Dassault Aviation Dassault Aviation SA () is a French manufacturer of military aircraft and business jets. It was founded in 1929 by Marcel Bloch as Société des Avions Marcel Bloch or "MB". After World War II, Marcel Bloch changed his name to Marcel Da ...

in the late 1960s. The type was further developed into the twin-engine Mirage G4 and G8 variants as a multi-role jet fighter capable of both interception and nuclear strike missions. Although Dassault built and flew prototypes, the entire programme was terminated in the 1970s without the aircraft entering production.Green 1972, p. 84.

Development

In 1964 the French defence ministry requested a development programme on variable-sweep wing aircraft for dual land and

aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a ...

use. France had participated with the Anglo-French Variable Geometry aircraft (

AFVG BAC/Dassault AFVG (standing for Anglo-French Variable Geometry) was a 1960s project for supersonic multi-role combat aircraft with a variable-sweep wing, jointly developed by British Aircraft Corporation in the United Kingdom and Dassault Avia ...

) before abandoning their interest; later Dassault received an order for a prototype, powered by a single Pratt & Whitney/SNECMA TF-306

turbofan The turbofan or fanjet is a type of airbreathing jet engine that is widely used in aircraft engine, aircraft propulsion. The word "turbofan" is a portmanteau of "turbine" and "fan": the ''turbo'' portion refers to a gas turbine engine which ac ...

in October 1965. The first variable-sweep aircraft from Dassault emerged as the single-engined, two-seat Mirage G fighter in 1967, essentially a swing wing version of the Mirage F2. The wings were swept at 22 degrees when fully forward and 70 degrees when fully aft and featured full-span double-slotted trailing edge flaps and two-position leading edge flaps. Flight trials were relatively successful but no production order ensued, the Mirage G programme being cancelled in 1968.Dassault Aviation - Mirage G history
www.dassault-aviation.com Retrieved: 10 April 2010 Flying with the Mirage G continued however until 13 January 1971 when the sole prototype was lost in an accident.

Variants

Mirage G

Single-engined initial version, first flight 18 November 1967. Crashed 13 January 1971.

Mirage G4

The basic Mirage G was developed into a twin-engine, two-seat nuclear strike fighter, the Mirage G4 after a separate contract was issued in 1968 for two aircraft to be built. These aircraft were intended to be powered by Snecma M53

s in production. While the aircraft were under construction the requirements changed and the French military requested that the design be converted into a dedicated interceptor, the Mirage G8.

Mirage G8

Mirage G4-01 was redesignated G8-01 and remained a two-seat aircraft (first flight 8 May 1971) with the second aircraft, G4-02 becoming a single-seat version, G8-02 (first flight 13 July 1972). The G8 variants were equipped with

Thomson-CSF Thomson-CSF was a French company that specialized in the development and manufacture of electronics with a heavy focus upon the aerospace and defence sectors of the market. Thomson-CSF was formed in 1968 following the merger of Thomson-Houst ...

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, Marine radar, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor v ...

and a low-altitude navigational-attack system based on that used in the

SEPECAT Jaguar The SEPECAT Jaguar is an Anglo-French jet attack aircraft originally used by the British Royal Air Force and the French Air Force in the close air support and nuclear strike role. It is still in service with the Indian Air Force. Originally ...

and Dassault Milan. As no funding was included for the Mirage G8 in the 1971-1976 French defence budget the aircraft did not enter production.

Cooperation on LTV V-507

In the late 1960s, the US manufacturer Ling-Temco-Vought (LTV) was seeking technical data on variable-geometry wings, within the framework of a bid for the US Navy's VFX carrier fighter contract. As a result of the publicity gained by the Mirage G, LTV sought the assistance of Dassault, as well as

General Dynamics General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded, aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the fifth-largest defense contractor in the world by arms sales, and 5th largest in the Uni ...

, which had secured a contract with the USAF for a variable geometry fighter-bomber/attack aircraft, the

F-111A The General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark is a retired supersonic, medium-range, multirole combat aircraft. Production variants of the F-111 had roles that included ground attack (e.g. interdiction), strategic bombing (including nuclear weapons c ...

. Two agreements were signed by Dassault and LTV in 1968: one for general cooperation and the other specifically in regard to variable-geometry wings. This resulted in two LTV designs, the Vought V-505 and V-507, as well as construction of a full-scale, non-flying mockup of the second design. There were two competing bids, both with variable geometry: the McDonnell F-4(FVS), which was a variant of the Phantom II, and the Grumman 303. The latter was successful and was developed into the F-14. However, during its development, Grumman approached LTV for details of the V-507, including some of the same technical solutions devised for the Mirage G. Some of the same data also contributed to the

Vought Model V-1100 Vought was the name of several related American aerospace firms. These have included, in the past, Lewis and Vought Corporation, Chance Vought, Vought-Sikorsky, LTV Aerospace (part of Ling-Temco-Vought), Vought Aircraft Companies, and Vought Ai ...

, which competed for the Pentagon's

Light Weight Fighter The Lightweight Fighter (LWF) program was a United States Air Force technology evaluation program initiated in the late 1960s by a group of officers and defense analysts known as the "Fighter Mafia". It was spurred by then-Major John Boyd's ' ...

program in the 1970s. However, this LTV design did not include variable geometry (and was more closely related to the LTV A-7 Corsair II). This particular proposal was also rejected and the

F-16 The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is a single-engine multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it evolved into a successf ...

and

F/A-18 The McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet is an all-weather, twin-engine, supersonic, carrier-capable, multirole combat aircraft, designed as both a fighter and attack aircraft (hence the F/A designation). Designed by McDonnell Douglas (now part ...

were eventually selected for production.

Aircraft on display

* Dassault Mirage G8-01 is on public display at the Musée de l’air et de l’espace near Paris. * Dassault Mirage G8-02 is on public display at the Musée Européen de l'Aviation de Chasse,

Montélimar Montélimar (; Vivaro-Alpine: ''Montelaimar'' ; la, Acumum) is a town in the Drôme department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in north Provence, Southeastern France. It is the second-largest city in the department after Valence. In 2018 ...

.Mirage G8-02 - Musée europeen de l'aviation de chasse (French language)
www.meacmtl.com Retrieved: 7 November 2017

Specifications (Mirage G8-02)

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Buttler, Tony. ''X-Planes of Europe II: Military Prototype Aircraft from the Golden Age 1946–1974''. Manchester, UK: Hikoki Publications, 2015. *Buttler, Tony and Jean-Louis Delezenne. ''X-Planes of Europe: Secret Research Aircraft from the Golden Age 1946-1974''. Manchester, UK: Hikoki Publications, 2012. *Carbonel, Jean-Christophe. ''French Secret Projects 1: Post War Fighters''. Manchester, UK: Crecy Publishing, 2016 * Green, William. ''The Observer's Book of Aircraft''. London. Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd., 1968. * Green, William. ''The Observer's Book of Aircraft''. London. Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd., 1972.

External links

{{Authority control Mirage G 1960s French attack aircraft 1960s French fighter aircraft Twinjets Variable-sweep-wing aircraft Cancelled military aircraft projects of France Aircraft first flown in 1967