Dassault Balzac V

The Dassault Balzac V was a French vertical take-off and landing testbed of the early 1960s, built by Dassault Aviation from a prototype Mirage III to test the configuration planned for the Mirage IIIV. Because the Rolls-Royce RB162 lift engines intended for the Mirage IIIV were not yet available, Dassault fitted eight Rolls-Royce RB108 lift engines in tandem pairs around the centre of gravity and replaced the Atar propulsion engine with an un-reheated Bristol Siddeley Orpheus. It began tethered hovering on 12 October 1962, made its first free hover six days later, and flew its first transition from vertical to horizontal flight on 18 March 1963. The single aircraft was involved in two fatal accidents, in 1964 and 1965, and was not repaired after the second.