Dassault Mirage 4000

The Dassault Mirage 4000, sometimes called the Super Mirage 4000, was a French twin-engined fighter that Dassault built as a private venture and flew only as a single prototype. It took the delta wing and semi-conical air intakes of the single-engined Mirage 2000 and enlarged them around two SNECMA M53-2 turbofans, adding small canards above the intakes and a bubble canopy. First flown on 9 March 1979, it was meant as a long-range interceptor and fighter-bomber in the class of the American F-15 Eagle. No customer ordered it: Saudi Arabia chose the Panavia Tornado, Iran was lost after its 1979 revolution, India bought more Mirage 2000s and MiG-29s, and the French Air Force preferred the 2000. The prototype made 336 flights, the last on 8 January 1988, and now rests in the Paris air and space museum, the Musée de l'air et de l'espace. Some of what Dassault learned later influenced the Rafale.