Dassault Mirage IIIV
| Mirage IIIV | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Mirage IIIV at the Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace, Le Bourget, France | |
| Role | VTOL fighter aircraft |
| Manufacturer | Dassault Aviation |
| First flight | 12 February 1965 |
| Primary user | French Air Force |
| Produced | 1965-1966 |
| Number built | 2 |
| Developed from | Dassault Balzac V |
The Dassault Mirage IIIV, also spelled Mirage III V, was a French vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) prototype fighter aircraft of the mid-1960s. The Mirage IIIV model followed the Dassault Mirage III and featured eight small vertical lift jets straddling the main engine. The design was in response to a NATO specification for a VTOL strike fighter. One of the two aircraft built was destroyed in an accident and the project was abandoned; the surviving aircraft is on public display.
Since the Rolls-Royce RB162 lift engines specified for the Mirage IIIV were not expected to be available before 1963, Dassault modified the first Mirage III prototype as the Balzac V to serve as an interim VTOL testbed. Fitted with eight Rolls-Royce RB.108 lift engines and an unreheated Bristol Orpheus BOr 3 as the main engine. The Balzac began tethered hovering on 12 October 1962 and achieved the first free hover only six days later. The first accelerating transition from vertical take-off to horizontal flight took place on its 17th sortie on March 18, 1963. The aircraft had two fatal accidents, one in January 1964 and one in September 1965. After the last accident the aircraft was not repaired.
In the meantime, the Balzac had led to the actual Mirage IIIV, which was twice as big. Two prototypes were built. The first Mirage IIIV performed its first hovering trial on 12 February 1965. The IIIV had the general layout of earlier Mirage fighters, but it was longer and had a bigger wing, and, like the Balzac, nine engines: a single SNECMA-modified Pratt & Whitney JTF10 turbofan, designated TF104, with thrust of 61.8 kN (13,900 lbf), and eight Rolls-Royce RB162-1 engines, each with thrust of 15.7 kN (3,525 lbf), mounted vertically in pairs around the centreline. The TF104 was originally evaluated on a special-built trials machine, the Mirage IIIT, which was much like a Mirage IIIC except for the change in engine fit.
The TF104 engine was quickly replaced by an upgraded TF106 engine, with thrust of 74.5 kN (16,750 lbf), before the first prototype made its initial transition to forward flight in March 1966. It later attained Mach 1.32 in test flights.
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