Dassault Mirage I / MD-550 Mystère Delta

Summary

Description

It is in February 1953 that the French Air Force ordered prototypes of lightweight interceptors. The specifications stated that the aircraft should be "under 4 tons, capable of reaching 15,000 meters in 4 minutes, flying at Mach 1.3 in level flight to catch up with an enemy aircraft flying at Mach 1 and more than 25 km away, carrying a 200 kg missile, returning to its base and waiting five minutes after landing before coming to a stop at less than 180 km/h." Additionally, they should be able to operate from unprepared runways.

Three French manufacturers responded to the project: the Société Nationale de Construction Aéronautique du Sud-Ouest (SNCASO) with the SO 9050 Trident 2, the Société Nationale de Construction Aéronautique du Sud-Est (SNCASE) with the SE 212 Durandal, and the Générale Aéronautique Marcel Dassault, which presented the MD-550 "Mystère-Delta", a single-seat twin-jet aircraft. Dassault used the delta wing for the first time, which was experimented with by Alexander Lippisch during World War II and reused by the Americans at Convair (XF-92) and the Swedes (Saab 210, the ancestor of the J-35 Draken).

The Mystère Delta made its first flight on June 25, 1955, piloted by Roland Glavany, who was impressed by this 15-minute flight despite some yaw problems. By its fourth flight, the aircraft, although powered by 2 MD 30 Viper turbojet engines with only 750 kgp thrust each, reached Mach 0.95 in a slight dive. Six months later, the aircraft would achieve a speed of Mach 1.3 in level flight.

In January 1956, following the lessons learned from the first series of flights, certain modifications were made to the Mystère Delta: strengthened landing gear; new servos; addition of a tail parachute and a Martin-Baker ejection seat; reduction of the wingspan by 30 cm; repositioning of the vertical stabilizer to the rear, with a sloping trailing edge instead of a vertical one; modification of the air intakes; and most importantly, new MD 30 "R" engines with afterburners producing 950 kgp thrust, as well as a SEPR rocket engine providing additional thrust for 80 seconds. Renamed Mirage I (because it should be seen but never be caught), the modified aircraft took to the air on May 5, 1956.

Despite the Mirage I's flight qualities, in July 1956, the French Air Force requested a single-engine aircraft with greater endurance and capable of carrying a radar. It also criticized the rocket engine for being too difficult to manage in operations. The military leadership also realized that the concept of a lightweight interceptor no longer met the new aerial requirements in the context of the Cold War. Marcel Dassault subsequently repurchased the unfinished MD-550-02 (which became the Mirage II) from the government and, after modification, transformed it into the Mirage III-001 "Balzac".

The Mirage I therefore served to demonstrate the advantages of the delta wing design, as well as give birth to the famous Mirage aircraft lineage.

Technical specifications

Current operating countries

No country is operating the Mirage I / MD-550 Mystère Delta in 2024.

All operators

France

Photo of Mirage I / MD-550 Mystère Delta