HOME | DD

Description
It seems like forever since I last posted flight sim screenshots. >.>

In the late-1950s and the 1960s, passenger jets began to take over the torch from the previous generations of piston- and turboprop-driven aircraft. After the long-distance routes were taken over by the likes of the legendary Boeing 707, Douglas DC-8 and De Havilland Comet (and on the other side of the Curtain, the Tupolev Tu 104), aircraft manufacturers began to concentrate on the other end of the spectrum: trunk routes. France would be the first country to succesfully launch a short- and medium-distance jet airliner - the Sud Aviation Caravelle of 1955, however by the mid-1960s a large swathe of the market would be captured by Boeing's highly succesful Boeing 727.

At the time, Dassault was convinced that they would be able to cut a substantial swathe of the market for themselves, so after an in-deep study, Dassault started constructing a short- and medium-range airliner of themselves, the Dassault Mercure 100.

It became a gigantic flop.

The problems began with the study commissioned to investigate the best kind of aircraft for the market they were trying to capture. In a market where the Boeing 727, Sud Aviation Caravelle, and Hawker Siddeley Trident were reigning supreme, but where the new Boeing 737 and Douglas DC-9 were beginning to make an impact of their own, Dassault knew they were up against some tough competition. So they tried to compete with the most promising of these designs - the Boeing 737. However, studying the flight patterns of short- and medium-distance airliners, Dassault's engineers failed to realise one important thing: while these aircraft usually flew short legs (average of an hour to an hour and half of flight), most of these aircraft had a fuel capacity for longer flights, and usually were fuelled up so they could fly several legs without having to refuel, shortening their turn-around times, and giving them the potential of flying longer legs as well.

Erroniously focussing on the average flight leg lengths, Dassault designed the Mercure with just enough fuel capacity for about two hours of flight - less even if the aircraft was configured for maximum payloads. A lack of foresight meant, that the airframe of the Mercure was just stressed for these loads - meanwhile, Boeing designed its 737 with wings stressed and configured for potential additional fuel tanks - tanks which would be included in later versions, giving the later 737s an increased range compared to the original 'base' version.

Economics played a major role in the Mercure's failure as well. Just as the Mercure prototype was making its first flights in 1971, the US Dollar underwent a massive devaluation, effectively making the Mercure much more expensive for potential American customers compared to the DC-9 and Boeing 737. The Oil Crisis of 1973 worsened this even more, effectively killing the Mercure's prospects of any American orders. Meanwhile, the same economic factors effectively made the DC-9 and 737 much cheaper for prospective European customers compared to the Mercure.

But in the end, it was the Mercure's lack of range which effectively killed the design. With its 1700 km range with full payload (or 2000 km range with a near-uneconomical load), customers were deterred from buying the design. Despite solid orders from Air Inter, most other potential customers soon lost interest. A later popular aviation joke even went as far to state that "the Mercure never got foreign orders, as it never had enough range to get outside of France anyway". As a result, only two prototypes and ten production aircraft were built, with one of the prototypes later being refurbished to become an additional "production" aircraft, all of these entering service with Air Inter. There, they would fly between 1973 and 1995, before their type was finally retired. The 12 Mercure airframes contrast with nearly 1000 DC-9s built, and well over 8000 Boeing 737s built - and continuing to be built - over a number of different generations.

For Dassault, the Mercure became a gigantic and economic flop. They had invested millions in building four dedicated plants for the construction of the Mercure 100, as they were sure that they could get hold of hundreds of orders. Later attempts at building an improved Mercure 200 with increased capacity and range, and more efficient engines failed, as it was discovered the entire aircraft would have to be redesigned from scratch, as a result of failing to anticipate potential future improvements to the base design.

Flight Simulator 2004/FS9 by and (c) Microsoft
Dassault Mercure 100 by I. D'Attomo & G.Quai
Bordeaux 1961 by Harry Biard, Alejandro Ramirez, & Bernard Leuenberger

Description
It seems like forever since I last posted flight sim screenshots. >.>

In the late-1950s and the 1960s, passenger jets began to take over the torch from the previous generations of piston- and turboprop-driven aircraft. After the long-distance routes were taken over by the likes of the legendary Boeing 707, Douglas DC-8 and De Havilland Comet (and on the other side of the Curtain, the Tupolev Tu 104), aircraft manufacturers began to concentrate on the other end of the spectrum: trunk routes. France would be the first country to succesfully launch a short- and medium-distance jet airliner - the Sud Aviation Caravelle of 1955, however by the mid-1960s a large swathe of the market would be captured by Boeing's highly succesful Boeing 727.

At the time, Dassault was convinced that they would be able to cut a substantial swathe of the market for themselves, so after an in-deep study, Dassault started constructing a short- and medium-range airliner of themselves, the Dassault Mercure 100.

It became a gigantic flop.

The problems began with the study commissioned to investigate the best kind of aircraft for the market they were trying to capture. In a market where the Boeing 727, Sud Aviation Caravelle, and Hawker Siddeley Trident were reigning supreme, but where the new Boeing 737 and Douglas DC-9 were beginning to make an impact of their own, Dassault knew they were up against some tough competition. So they tried to compete with the most promising of these designs - the Boeing 737. However, studying the flight patterns of short- and medium-distance airliners, Dassault's engineers failed to realise one important thing: while these aircraft usually flew short legs (average of an hour to an hour and half of flight), most of these aircraft had a fuel capacity for longer flights, and usually were fuelled up so they could fly several legs without having to refuel, shortening their turn-around times, and giving them the potential of flying longer legs as well.

Erroniously focussing on the average flight leg lengths, Dassault designed the Mercure with just enough fuel capacity for about two hours of flight - less even if the aircraft was configured for maximum payloads. A lack of foresight meant, that the airframe of the Mercure was just stressed for these loads - meanwhile, Boeing designed its 737 with wings stressed and configured for potential additional fuel tanks - tanks which would be included in later versions, giving the later 737s an increased range compared to the original 'base' version.

Economics played a major role in the Mercure's failure as well. Just as the Mercure prototype was making its first flights in 1971, the US Dollar underwent a massive devaluation, effectively making the Mercure much more expensive for potential American customers compared to the DC-9 and Boeing 737. The Oil Crisis of 1973 worsened this even more, effectively killing the Mercure's prospects of any American orders. Meanwhile, the same economic factors effectively made the DC-9 and 737 much cheaper for prospective European customers compared to the Mercure.

But in the end, it was the Mercure's lack of range which effectively killed the design. With its 1700 km range with full payload (or 2000 km range with a near-uneconomical load), customers were deterred from buying the design. Despite solid orders from Air Inter, most other potential customers soon lost interest. A later popular aviation joke even went as far to state that "the Mercure never got foreign orders, as it never had enough range to get outside of France anyway". As a result, only two prototypes and ten production aircraft were built, with one of the prototypes later being refurbished to become an additional "production" aircraft, all of these entering service with Air Inter. There, they would fly between 1973 and 1995, before their type was finally retired. The 12 Mercure airframes contrast with nearly 1000 DC-9s built, and well over 8000 Boeing 737s built - and continuing to be built - over a number of different generations.

For Dassault, the Mercure became a gigantic and economic flop. They had invested millions in building four dedicated plants for the construction of the Mercure 100, as they were sure that they could get hold of hundreds of orders. Later attempts at building an improved Mercure 200 with increased capacity and range, and more efficient engines failed, as it was discovered the entire aircraft would have to be redesigned from scratch, as a result of failing to anticipate potential future improvements to the base design.

Flight Simulator 2004/FS9 by and (c) Microsoft
Dassault Mercure 100 by I. D'Attomo & G.Quai
Bordeaux 1961 by Harry Biard, Alejandro Ramirez, & Bernard Leuenberger