All these Dassault airplanes are superb. The Mirage 2000, Mirage IV, Rafale, etc. The Mirage 4000 was no exception. If only it finished to be designed.
Dang that was a looker. I saw the prototype at the Bourget museum a few weeks ago. It’s quite a big plane, but even on the ground it’s one of the most beautiful things ever designed.
Last Laugh has to be on the Saudi's, the tornado's are obsolete now while the Mirage 4000 would probably have just received a life extension program like the F15's. The Mirage 4000 was defo a keeper
The Tonka is a great Striker, but it's not a fighter and neither will all the thrust in Christendom and Islam make one out of it. Choosing the Tornado F.2/3 over it was a bad choice. You can make a case for the GR/IDS/ECR Tonkas though.
Likewise. Used to watch the show from the roof of our office building where I worked on the site. Much closer to the flight line so hard to get any work done in the afternoons during show time.
Another hit, Ed great job. Truly the Mirage 4k was an extremely capable air superiority advanced air craft with the worst luck and timing. It reminded to a lesser degree to the F-20 tiger shark on display here in LA at the science center, expo. Thank you so much for another bang up job
in a way it's not really a matter of luck, it's geopolitics. The Americans have always tried to smother the French aeronautic sector, for reasons that i presume to be half economic interest, half pride. we have a population that is basically 1/5th of them, and yet somehow manage to challenge their tech superiority especially in the aerospace sector. they don't really like that. Unlike most NATO countries that for the longest time aligned themselves on the US, France has always tired to keep its own geopolitical independence, which means that we could sell arms to countries who didn't want to appear too friendly with either the US or USSR. but every now and then the American government will bully some country who would likely buy our stuff so that they buy F-something's instead. Typically it happened a few weeks ago in Switzerland, both the public and the pilots were really in favor of the rafale, but then biden came to visit, and who would have guessed ? now the swiss air police will fly F-35s, an aircraft that is completely overpriced and makes no sense for them. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I worked at Northrop during the chaotic, political times of the trying to sell the F20 to the Air Force for a top notch, $9,million fighter plane for export and the Air National Guard. So, I very much appreciate the very knowledgeable
Comparaison to the very excellent French mirage. I worked in marketing, and we had the likes of Chuck Yeager helping us , but General Dynamics had over a hundred (at least) minions in Washington - We had five.... so crooked!
I regularly see the Mirage 2000 maritime patrol fly over my house and along the coast. Impressive aircraft even today. My dentist is on Avenue Marcel D'Assault. I was there last week lol. Great aircraft.
Never heard of it before watching your video. Thank you! Dassault => Pronounce "dasso". Usualy in french the last consonnant is mute, but wiht proper nouns it can be tricky.
There's a common story in Australia about the Mirage 4000 that we were offered the jigs and moulds for the aircraft to make them here ourselves, with either the french engines or any others we could fit to them. Unfortunately, the government of the day declined the offer... don't know why... I mean, Australia flew the Mirage IIIC and loved it. These would have been superb and probably still flying.
It's kinda funny, the way u described the capabilities and performance of this aircraft is almost exactly the way Jay Leno describes French cars: over all very solid, very comfortable, no one aspect below par and in at least one often more ways superior. Also like their car industry the French seemed to have been dogged by mismanagement and govt. ineptitude (not unlike the British car industry). They really do so many things so damn well. The FAMAS bullput is the only bullpup one not compromised by the intrinsic drawbacks of they type and the Mirage seems to have gotten as much as could be out of the delta wing design... in the process making a stunningly good looking plane.
And it's not only that, the list continues with many more technologies where the French have put their own unique signature. For example, unlike the British they didn't get the nuclear bomb know-how from America, but run and developed their own nuclear program. And, again, same as the plane, they sold their own know-how later to Israel (and probably South Africa). So, yeah, they do deserve all the respect for all those technological achievements they continue producing to this day.
@@alexandermishev6897 the nuclear weapon is a french idea who was proposed by Frederic Joliot Curie in 1939 before the WWII. He discovered the caracteristics of the Uranium 235 and proposed to the defense ministere to use it like a weapon.
@@oOLuNaTiC93Oo and it was not just an idea it was patented and two of his collegues(Hans ALBAN and Lew KOWALSKI) went to the UK and later to the US to help american scientist who where far behind at the time. When they learned all that the French scientist could teach them they were fired from the project Manhattan and forbidden to work in the US, so they just build the first nuclear reactor of Canada instead.
MIRAGE 2000 the most successful fighter jet. Look-wise its DEADLY. Really a Big Fan of Mirage 2000C. Indian Air Force is also using 40-45 of these jets and are serving well. Love from India to all the French brothers and sisters. May peace reside in all the world.
Looked like an excellent plane that never made it to production. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if they had already started producing some for the Iranians before the revolution. I am guessing the French Air Force might have changed their minds then.
@@adied_2001 the rafale actually has smaller engines, partly because it needed to be a lot lighter to fit on an aircraft carrier. but the experience from that program was invaluable, the rafale rolled out in advance on its schedule which in a way is really the ultimate flex anyone could ever pull off 😅
I worked at Farnborough and clearly remember seeing the 4000 at the 1982 show. It really was a beauty, especially in that wonderful Dassault house scheme.
When I worked in private aircraft management and overheard my boss's speaker phone calls to Dassault customer support they never corrected his pronunciation which was like yours which was likely because we were their customer. Now Bombardier in Quebec had no problem letting him know it was Bom-bar-dee-ay and not Bom-bar-deer.
those of a mindset akin to that of an angry Québécois, always have to bombard non-'Bécois with their niche micro-reich version of culture war sub-nationalism, like very delayed action Vichy resistance.
@@mootpointjones8488 Though Reagan made his presidency fun to watch... and you have to give Trump entertainment value, watching his multi-unit trainwreck in action
@@ImpendingJoker Reagan was a good president for his time. He projected a strong image vis-à-vis the Soviet Union. He built up the military, and at that time, he made the US stronger than any other country around. He also killed a lot of social programs, and his trickle-down economics concepts by his team failed miserably. Every other president since him, well, some did good things, most screwed up. trump was a disaster. Anyone who says he did a good job is simply deluding themselves.
Excellent summary, and it's good for Dassault that some of their private venture funding could be recouped when they split out of the Eurofighter programme and developed the Rafale. A couple of minor things: compared to the F-14, F-15 and F-16 the F/A-18 was a bit later to the party than you suggest and in fact flew for the first time only a few months before the 4000. It would have been a higher risk buy for the Saudis or Iran, asuming they could have got production slots in amongst the USMC and USN deliveries. Also, for future reference 'Dassault' is pronounced more like 'Dass-oh'. There is also a certain irony in France giving sanctuary to Khomeini and thereby blowing a billion Francs in exports, apart from any loss in future trade.
Effectively the french gvt made a terrible mistake supporting Khomeini and his goons, with a little common sense they could've spared the world a lot of troubles, given how Iranian revolution destabilized the WHOLE area (a lethal domino: invasion of Afghanistan by the russians, Iran-Iraq war, 1st gulf war, spreading of religious/islamic fanatism in the World, terrorism....all for the perverse idiocy of French politicians to follow a politic of"Grandeur" and trying to be a great power)
You dont take into account that the french made billions during the war providing weapons to irak and iran ( mostly irak though) So you could argue helping komeny was a good investement
Great video. Iran only actually took delivery of 79 of the 80 F14’s. The 80th’s delivery was denied because of the revolution and is rusting away outdoors at USN Lemoore NAS.
The 80th F14 was kept in the US initially as test bed for a lot of modifications that the Iranian air force had requested. Once the Islamists took over, the US kept the plane.
In the late 70s Iran had about 240 F 4s and 79 F 14s. Its air force was far better supplied than medium power countries like Britain Germany France and Japan.
@@steveharvey6421 .... _initially_ ..better supplied, casualty ignoring crew training & purged service personnel, only, ...with no future spares or upgrades available from manufacturers/US to operate them adequately for long.
Off topic: It would be interesting for Saab to try the same concept with the Gripen - a twin engine heavier strike version of their light single seat fighter.
That might be a bit of a hard sell given that the Rafale is already there for anybody who wants a heavier twin-engine fighter with greater payload than the Gripen. The Gripen's biggest selling point is that it has much lower operating costs than other 4.5-gen fighters, while still having equivalent air-to-air capability and not that much worse air-to-ground. I'm not sure if trying to compete even more directly with the Rafale than they currently do would be to Saab's benefit.
Visiting the Le Bourget shows till 1989, always a center stage position was set aside for this magnificent looking beast of an aircraft. I’ve always been impressed by its looks and the performance, even if you take these with a pinch of salt.
@@atilllathehun1212 short term win. What about the long term, though? More dodgy deals? Always comes back to bite you, when you don't want it to. Like now.
@@EdNashsMilitaryMatters Ethically I have never seen what is wrong with greasing the wheels for an Arms deal? I mean you are selling a product whose job is kill people so morally it seems you have crossed the Rubicon and throwing some money around to ensure your product is picked over somebody else just does not seem wrong to me in that context. To rob a quote from another film - it is like handing out speeding tickets at the Indy 500.
Thanks for bringing this up. A couple of things spring to mind. First, the radar dish was probably going to be a bit small, compared with similar class aircraft like the F-15 or Su-27. That wouldn't be such a problem now but I think it would have been in the late 80's or early 90's. Secondly, do we know what the datalink capability was like?
No. There was an interview available on RUclips, the Dassault/Thales officials said they was working on a more advanced radar and electronics technologies for the Mirage 4000. A fighter jet of this size really need to see very far, since it's a very long range aircraft. This advanced technologies finally arrived on the Rafale.
I get a feeling that the design of the Indian LCA Tejas was somewhat inspired by the Mirage 4000, although the LCA is a single engined fighter mostly being used to replace the obsolete Mig 21 from Indian service.
An absolutely gorgeous aircraft, and a mighty fighter. Politics and bad timing were fatal to it, unfortunately. It can be regarded as a parent to the Rafale airframe (the latter being much smaller, though).
I remember the RAAF Mirages that used to fly around Darwin, in the late 70's early 80's They were very impressive looking aircraft, They would occasionally do a sonic boom over the town until they were reprimanded🤣
The french government suffered several hard pressures from the US to not sell this aircraft; they had theirs to provide, keep this in mind. I was at Le Bourget the year she made her display, very nice jet fighter.
@@Ushio01 the Rafale Marine enter in service in 2002 in temporary configuration F1 (to replace in urgence the very old F8 Crusaders) before heawy improvings for the F2 in 2005, so in real is the definitive Rafale is built sinze 16 years and not 35...
Even so i allways admired the French lineage of aircraft and the Mirage family in particular.. they all were excellent fighter craft.. and all that done by a single country with 5 times less population than the united states.. while the British have some brilliant planes too i think overall the french beat them .. a shame they retired from the Eurofighter program.. but i understand them... the EF is brilliant but the development was a clusterfuck of arguing over how to do stuff .. they should had centered in doing the airframe and engines and leave some flexibility over radar and avionics so they could had moved forward sooner
@@sparrowlt Yes, but that´s always the big issue with joint projects. Everyone needs something specific that gets in the way of the project as a whole. One of the few cases where it worked out well was the german/french Alpha Jet, but those instances are rare.
@@sim.frischh9781 the Alpha Jet is just a trainer.. there is not much to do there. the airframe and engines... the EF the problem was the avionics, ECM suite, the radar, etc.. Germany was by far the most annoying part of the whole consortium
An excellent and informative video as always. But... Goodness gracious! Who were those Dassault cameramen? That's some of the most electrifying aerial footage I've seen on youtube! Fantastic stuff!
Still one of the prettiest planes ever to my eye. Thought the Rafale was going to be a challenger looks wise but the production Rafale is nowhere near as pretty as this.
Oh man imagine picking up tornados instead of the Mirage 4000... big ooof! I think it really would have stood shoulder to shoulder with the Strike Eagle.
As a non-expert I bet I am making a faux-pas, but I can see the lineage of the Typhoon in that plane. Such a shame it was so unlucky in the timing and politics.
the typhoon is more related to rafale than the mirage 4000 but they still be relatively close cause rafale uses design from the 4000. The typhoon was an european aircraft and the french just get out of it and did his own cause the typhoon wasn't really what we wanted.
Delta wings might appear to be less efficient than other wing configurations but actually it's not true. At high speeds & high G turns, the swept wings & tapered wings lose efficiency due to bending while the Delta wing doesn't. Also Delta wings can store fuel internally & can also provide more hardpoints.
Those years saw how manufacturers built jets based on what kind of warfare is happening around. Those years multi-tasking jets is a boom. Like the F-15C Air Superiority fighter that can also be built for as ground support role like the F-15E that can also able to stand up in an air to air combat. The F-16 too as a very flexible flatform for both air to air and air to ground sorties. Today single minded jets like air superiority only flatform no longer have a big selling point like the Eurofighter as new breed of jets or choices has emerge. Like the Flankers, Fulcrums, and the Gripens that is the F-16s biggest competition in every aspect. It even beat the hell of other bigger competitions in "Red Flag"
The deal wasn't just about Tornados, it included Hawk trainers, Jetstream Nav trainers, minesweepers and more plus a continued service and support package in place since they brought Lightnings and Strikemasters in the 60's. The UK largely set up and trained the Saudi AF lending them Hunters and early model Lightnings at the start. France's package included similar and much more, the much more largely not wanted by the Saudis but the French took a 'take it or leave it' approach. In the end the Saudis brought 96 Tornado IDS strike aircraft and 24 ADV versions. I saw the Mirage 4000 at the F.I. 80 and 82 airshows, it was an impressive aircraft but if your own air force won't buy it it harms sales and customers worry about long term technical support. The Tornado was in service with three nations when the Saudis brought it.
WoW amazing 👌👍 French could have offered Mirage 4000 to Indian Airforce , they already operate Mirage 2000 successfully in combat and would have been glad to accept a twin engine Mirage 🤔🙄 Anyway we now have Rafael in the IAF 😀
Interesting video as always, thank you. It has me curious, what is the most impressive or expensive (Two different questions maybe) Aircraft ever developed that never actually found any sales or entered production. I'd imagine this and the F-20 have to be pretty high on that list, maybe the TSR-2.
@@EdNashsMilitaryMatters Good video, but the point of the Mirage F1 exporting success, was even more true to the Mirage III. It would have been better to talk about the Mirage III, which inspired many rivals companies, literally copying the Mirage III concepts and ideas.
Will you do a narration video like this for the RC Jet Im developing? It will be flown from FPV as a drone, shaped a bit like the Avro Arrow but single engine
Thank you..some weeks fetore i ask you a video on this plane...the super 4000 would be the high part of high low mix in Arme de l air with the mirage 2000...as similar F15 F16 in USAF
The same way the F-104G managed to beat the F11F-1F Super Tiger and Saunders-Roe SR.177. British Aerospace showed they'd learned how to play Lockheed's game.
the front wings are called foreplanes..NOT canards. Canard is the wing configuration of a main wing and foreplanes, but as with everything these days, people who get this stuff wrong, get copied and before long everyone is saying it incorrectly... the proper term is that the plane has a canard configuration, consisting of foreplanes and a main wing.
Had french aur force inducted 50 nos of miraj4k india might have shown interest in purchasing fee of them . Bomb truck F15 us no match to agile miraj4k
In typical Dassault fashion, the jet looked utterly brilliant.
The Founder of Dassault Aviation, Marcel Dassault once said "A plane that looks good is a plane that flies good"
*laughs nervously in MS406*
**pisses pants in Amiot 143**
😉
**proud in his Block MB152**
All these Dassault airplanes are superb.
The Mirage 2000, Mirage IV, Rafale, etc.
The Mirage 4000 was no exception. If only it finished to be designed.
The 2000 might just be the 4000 because of upgrades.
Dang that was a looker. I saw the prototype at the Bourget museum a few weeks ago. It’s quite a big plane, but even on the ground it’s one of the most beautiful things ever designed.
The French have always had a feeling for style.
@@andersnilsson7917 For jet engined planes, i fully agree, but for piston engined ones, Italians are nonsuch.
@@Zorglub1966
Yes, true, the WWII italian fighters were beautiful, also the seaplane MC 72.
@@Mael1er oh! yes!!
@@Zorglub1966 D.520, VG33.
Last Laugh has to be on the Saudi's, the tornado's are obsolete now while the Mirage 4000 would probably have just received a life extension program like the F15's. The Mirage 4000 was defo a keeper
"Saudis might ban RUclips" funny! ;)
Well the mirage 4000 became the Rafale
But they have no issue buying new aircraft....
Alternatively, the last laugh is on the French, for giving Khomeini a place to run his revolution from in exile.
The Tonka is a great Striker, but it's not a fighter and neither will all the thrust in Christendom and Islam make one out of it.
Choosing the Tornado F.2/3 over it was a bad choice.
You can make a case for the GR/IDS/ECR Tonkas though.
I saw the 4000 at Farnborough a couple of times and was immensely impressed. She was a beast!
She 😁👍
Likewise. Used to watch the show from the roof of our office building where I worked on the site. Much closer to the flight line so hard to get any work done in the afternoons during show time.
Some years ago I found my father´s Aircraft Magazines from the 70s and 80s and they all have lot´s of publicity of the Mirage 4000. Great video
Another hit, Ed great job.
Truly the Mirage 4k was an extremely capable air superiority advanced air craft with the worst luck and timing. It reminded to a lesser
degree to the F-20 tiger shark on display here in LA at the science center, expo. Thank you so much for another bang up job
in a way it's not really a matter of luck, it's geopolitics. The Americans have always tried to smother the French aeronautic sector, for reasons that i presume to be half economic interest, half pride. we have a population that is basically 1/5th of them, and yet somehow manage to challenge their tech superiority especially in the aerospace sector. they don't really like that.
Unlike most NATO countries that for the longest time aligned themselves on the US, France has always tired to keep its own geopolitical independence, which means that we could sell arms to countries who didn't want to appear too friendly with either the US or USSR.
but every now and then the American government will bully some country who would likely buy our stuff so that they buy F-something's instead. Typically it happened a few weeks ago in Switzerland, both the public and the pilots were really in favor of the rafale, but then biden came to visit, and who would have guessed ? now the swiss air police will fly F-35s, an aircraft that is completely overpriced and makes no sense for them. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Would have loved a M4000-9F3
I worked at Northrop during the chaotic, political times of the trying to sell the F20 to the Air Force for a top notch, $9,million fighter plane for export and the Air National Guard. So, I very much appreciate the very knowledgeable
Comparaison to the very excellent French mirage. I worked in marketing, and we had the likes of Chuck Yeager helping us , but General Dynamics had over a hundred (at least) minions in Washington - We had five.... so crooked!
Mirage 4k is the 'old rafale'?
I regularly see the Mirage 2000 maritime patrol fly over my house and along the coast. Impressive aircraft even today. My dentist is on Avenue Marcel D'Assault. I was there last week lol. Great aircraft.
Looks nice just hope it is not yours but part of the enemy. Looks Good but is Dog Pooh.
@@trevorhart545 And yet they regularly stomp most other NATO platforms in DACT. Oh well, can't fix stupid.
I wish we had a technologically focussed and single minded aircraft producer like Dassault in the UK. Great Stuff again Ed Thanks very much.
you can see the mirage 4000's influence on Rafale
Also, since the French were so advanced, it really didn't make sense for them to participate in the Eurofighter programme.
That plane was a BEAST! Thanks for the background on a "what if" aircraft that has intrigued me for quite some time.
Never heard of it before watching your video. Thank you! Dassault => Pronounce "dasso". Usualy in french the last consonnant is mute, but wiht proper nouns it can be tricky.
There's a common story in Australia about the Mirage 4000 that we were offered the jigs and moulds for the aircraft to make them here ourselves, with either the french engines or any others we could fit to them. Unfortunately, the government of the day declined the offer... don't know why... I mean, Australia flew the Mirage IIIC and loved it. These would have been superb and probably still flying.
Hmm, maybe the US had Quiet talk , but that would never happen.
@@paulbaker9277 Tell that to Lockheed, who tried their best to bribe and cajole others into buying their aircraft before all others...
@@cassandrafoxx4171 I reckon their was a lot of talk.
probably US diplomacy, like with the submarines?! Joke aside, hasn't Australia purchased F111 instead, or was it for another purpose?
It's kinda funny, the way u described the capabilities and performance of this aircraft is almost exactly the way Jay Leno describes French cars: over all very solid, very comfortable, no one aspect below par and in at least one often more ways superior. Also like their car industry the French seemed to have been dogged by mismanagement and govt. ineptitude (not unlike the British car industry). They really do so many things so damn well. The FAMAS bullput is the only bullpup one not compromised by the intrinsic drawbacks of they type and the Mirage seems to have gotten as much as could be out of the delta wing design... in the process making a stunningly good looking plane.
And it's not only that, the list continues with many more technologies where the French have put their own unique signature. For example, unlike the British they didn't get the nuclear bomb know-how from America, but run and developed their own nuclear program. And, again, same as the plane, they sold their own know-how later to Israel (and probably South Africa). So, yeah, they do deserve all the respect for all those technological achievements they continue producing to this day.
@@alexandermishev6897 the nuclear weapon is a french idea who was proposed by Frederic Joliot Curie in 1939 before the WWII. He discovered the caracteristics of the Uranium 235 and proposed to the defense ministere to use it like a weapon.
@@oOLuNaTiC93Oo heavy water had been stored for that .... evacuated in May 1940 to North Africa ,then the West Indies.
@@oOLuNaTiC93Oo and it was not just an idea it was patented and two of his collegues(Hans ALBAN and Lew KOWALSKI) went to the UK and later to the US to help american scientist who where far behind at the time. When they learned all that the French scientist could teach them they were fired from the project Manhattan and forbidden to work in the US, so they just build the first nuclear reactor of Canada instead.
One of the major benchmarks for judging a country's education system is how good their engineers are. France has had good engineers for quite a while.
MIRAGE 2000 the most successful fighter jet. Look-wise its DEADLY. Really a Big Fan of Mirage 2000C. Indian Air Force is also using 40-45 of these jets and are serving well. Love from India to all the French brothers and sisters. May peace reside in all the world.
The most successful M 2000?? Is this a joke? F16 outsold it by 7:1 and still selling...M2000 closed its doors 15 years ago.
@@barracuda7018thanks to american lobbying machine... Like for the F35...
This is a way to ensure peace indeed... Si vis pacem para bellum...
Gutted this never made production. Its a gorgeous looking beast.
Looked like an excellent plane that never made it to production. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if they had already started producing some for the Iranians before the revolution. I am guessing the French Air Force might have changed their minds then.
actually this helped them a lot in making rafale. which is kind of a mirage 4000 on steroids.
This would have far more likely been sold to Iraq instead of Iran
@@adied_2001 the rafale actually has smaller engines, partly because it needed to be a lot lighter to fit on an aircraft carrier. but the experience from that program was invaluable, the rafale rolled out in advance on its schedule which in a way is really the ultimate flex anyone could ever pull off 😅
I remember seeing this put on an impressive display at Farnborough ‘86.
I worked at Farnborough and clearly remember seeing the 4000 at the 1982 show. It really was a beauty, especially in that wonderful Dassault house scheme.
Thank you very much for your video, it is very well done, all the best from France.
When I worked in private aircraft management and overheard my boss's speaker phone calls to Dassault customer support they never corrected his pronunciation which was like yours which was likely because we were their customer. Now Bombardier in Quebec had no problem letting him know it was Bom-bar-dee-ay and not Bom-bar-deer.
Another one of these is the publisher Elsevier. ;-)
Bom-bar-dee- eh ...more Canadian imo.
Bom-bar-deer sounds better.
those of a mindset akin to that of an angry Québécois, always have to bombard non-'Bécois with their niche micro-reich version of culture war sub-nationalism, like very delayed action Vichy resistance.
Beautiful plane. I've always loved a delta wing.
"Carter's policy was a failure.". Carter was a failure. There, fixed that.
Ditto every other US President since Carter.
@@mootpointjones8488 Though Reagan made his presidency fun to watch... and you have to give Trump entertainment value, watching his multi-unit trainwreck in action
@@mootpointjones8488 Regan was actually a very good PoTUS, I don't know what you're talking about. Everyone after him...yeah not so great.
@@ImpendingJoker Reagan was a good president for his time. He projected a strong image vis-à-vis the Soviet Union. He built up the military, and at that time, he made the US stronger than any other country around. He also killed a lot of social programs, and his trickle-down economics concepts by his team failed miserably. Every other president since him, well, some did good things, most screwed up. trump was a disaster. Anyone who says he did a good job is simply deluding themselves.
The Biden administration will be considered Carter 2.0 by historians.
Excellent summary, and it's good for Dassault that some of their private venture funding could be recouped when they split out of the Eurofighter programme and developed the Rafale. A couple of minor things: compared to the F-14, F-15 and F-16 the F/A-18 was a bit later to the party than you suggest and in fact flew for the first time only a few months before the 4000. It would have been a higher risk buy for the Saudis or Iran, asuming they could have got production slots in amongst the USMC and USN deliveries. Also, for future reference 'Dassault' is pronounced more like 'Dass-oh'. There is also a certain irony in France giving sanctuary to Khomeini and thereby blowing a billion Francs in exports, apart from any loss in future trade.
Effectively the french gvt made a terrible mistake supporting Khomeini and his goons, with a little common sense they could've spared the world a lot of troubles, given how Iranian revolution destabilized the WHOLE area (a lethal domino: invasion of Afghanistan by the russians, Iran-Iraq war, 1st gulf war, spreading of religious/islamic fanatism in the World, terrorism....all for the perverse idiocy of French politicians to follow a politic of"Grandeur" and trying to be a great power)
You dont take into account that the french made billions during the war providing weapons to irak and iran ( mostly irak though)
So you could argue helping komeny was a good investement
Beautiful lines. Whether in race cars or fighter jets, pleasant aesthetics play a role in the design success.
really cool, looks like it could have been a beast. thanks for another great vid.
Great video. Iran only actually took delivery of 79 of the 80 F14’s. The 80th’s delivery was denied because of the revolution and is rusting away outdoors at USN Lemoore NAS.
The 80th F14 was kept in the US initially as test bed for a lot of modifications that the Iranian air force had requested. Once the Islamists took over, the US kept the plane.
In the late 70s Iran had about 240 F 4s and 79 F 14s. Its air force was far better supplied than medium power countries like Britain Germany France and Japan.
@@steveharvey6421 .... _initially_
..better supplied, casualty ignoring crew training & purged service personnel, only,
...with no future spares or upgrades available from manufacturers/US to operate them adequately for long.
Beautiful plane! Great review! Thanks for sharing.
Off topic: It would be interesting for Saab to try the same concept with the Gripen - a twin engine heavier strike version of their light single seat fighter.
India is doing that with their tejas for the Indian navy.
@@sankubanku1633 That just got cancelled though
That sounds like the Arie, one of the concepts in a program that was scaled down and became the Lavi.
That might be a bit of a hard sell given that the Rafale is already there for anybody who wants a heavier twin-engine fighter with greater payload than the Gripen. The Gripen's biggest selling point is that it has much lower operating costs than other 4.5-gen fighters, while still having equivalent air-to-air capability and not that much worse air-to-ground. I'm not sure if trying to compete even more directly with the Rafale than they currently do would be to Saab's benefit.
Visiting the Le Bourget shows till 1989, always a center stage position was set aside for this magnificent looking beast of an aircraft. I’ve always been impressed by its looks and the performance, even if you take these with a pinch of salt.
That's a beautiful looking aircraft.
Every line looks perfect
That was a super delta that many countries missed to induct in their Air Forces.
"We won't go into [details of the arms deal] because they might ban RUclips."
Ah, one of THOSE deals, gotcha.
;)
Who cares? Brits got the order and the work.
@@atilllathehun1212 short term win. What about the long term, though? More dodgy deals? Always comes back to bite you, when you don't want it to.
Like now.
@@atilllathehun1212 That's what the Argentinians response to the English protests after Maradona's "Hand of God" goal.
@@EdNashsMilitaryMatters Ethically I have never seen what is wrong with greasing the wheels for an Arms deal? I mean you are selling a product whose job is kill people so morally it seems you have crossed the Rubicon and throwing some money around to ensure your product is picked over somebody else just does not seem wrong to me in that context. To rob a quote from another film - it is like handing out speeding tickets at the Indy 500.
Mirage 4000, F16XL, F20 & more. So many great could have beens.
What a beauty, just something about the Mirage series in general.
Thanks for bringing this up. A couple of things spring to mind. First, the radar dish was probably going to be a bit small, compared with similar class aircraft like the F-15 or Su-27. That wouldn't be such a problem now but I think it would have been in the late 80's or early 90's. Secondly, do we know what the datalink capability was like?
No. There was an interview available on RUclips, the Dassault/Thales officials said they was working on a more advanced radar and electronics technologies for the Mirage 4000.
A fighter jet of this size really need to see very far, since it's a very long range aircraft. This advanced technologies finally arrived on the Rafale.
I get a feeling that the design of the Indian LCA Tejas was somewhat inspired by the Mirage 4000, although the LCA is a single engined fighter mostly being used to replace the obsolete Mig 21 from Indian service.
An absolutely gorgeous aircraft, and a mighty fighter. Politics and bad timing were fatal to it, unfortunately.
It can be regarded as a parent to the Rafale airframe (the latter being much smaller, though).
That's a badass looking plane and unlike the F15 it looks like it can move as well.
I remember the RAAF Mirages that used to fly around Darwin, in the late 70's early 80's They were very impressive looking aircraft, They would occasionally do a sonic boom over the town until they were reprimanded🤣
Such a pity it wasn't put into production, a very sexy and capable fighter.
It's known as rafale nowadays. Allmost all of the system including many of the designs directly went into Rafale
If it was down to looks, every one would have bought them. What a great aircraft.
BEAUTIFUL shot of an Ecuadorian Mirage F1, it is only missing the kill mark for a Peruvian A-37 or Su-22!
Great video as always.
The A37 was killed by a kfir c2, not the F1. still I love how nationalist Peruvians desperately try to save face after those shootdowns.
The french government suffered several hard pressures from the US to not sell this aircraft; they had theirs to provide, keep this in mind. I was at Le Bourget the year she made her display, very nice jet fighter.
Always a fan of the M4000. Too bad it never made the big time. Beautiful jet
In the end, its successor, the Rafale, achieved market success that the Mirage 4000 couldn't.
Sure took a long time before anyone bought any Rafales.
less than 250 built in 35 years of production is hardly a market success.
@@Ushio01 the Rafale Marine enter in service in 2002 in temporary configuration F1 (to replace in urgence the very old F8 Crusaders) before heawy improvings for the F2 in 2005, so in real is the definitive Rafale is built sinze 16 years and not 35...
@@Ushio01 35 years? Wow Rafale entered service since 1986? 🤣🤣 Then again 250 is quite large for today's standard
@@LuqmanHM production not entered service. Exclude the early production jets and the 250 number goes below 200.
A shame, i think, this plane would have deserved more love.
The French went all out creating it, but somehow the cards were stacked against them.
Even so i allways admired the French lineage of aircraft and the Mirage family in particular.. they all were excellent fighter craft.. and all that done by a single country with 5 times less population than the united states.. while the British have some brilliant planes too i think overall the french beat them .. a shame they retired from the Eurofighter program.. but i understand them... the EF is brilliant but the development was a clusterfuck of arguing over how to do stuff .. they should had centered in doing the airframe and engines and leave some flexibility over radar and avionics so they could had moved forward sooner
@@sparrowlt Yes, but that´s always the big issue with joint projects.
Everyone needs something specific that gets in the way of the project as a whole.
One of the few cases where it worked out well was the german/french Alpha Jet, but those instances are rare.
@@sim.frischh9781 the Alpha Jet is just a trainer.. there is not much to do there. the airframe and engines... the EF the problem was the avionics, ECM suite, the radar, etc.. Germany was by far the most annoying part of the whole consortium
@@sparrowlt The Alpha Jet was also meant as a light ground attack and anti-helicopter plane.
And Germany being annoying is the norm anyways.
I remember seeing it fly at a Farnborough Airshow.
An excellent and informative video as always. But...
Goodness gracious! Who were those Dassault cameramen? That's some of the most electrifying aerial footage I've seen on youtube! Fantastic stuff!
Still one of the prettiest planes ever to my eye. Thought the Rafale was going to be a challenger looks wise but the production Rafale is nowhere near as pretty as this.
What a good looking aircraft.
Sounds like a twin engine F-16XL. Great looking jet
Oh man imagine picking up tornados instead of the Mirage 4000... big ooof! I think it really would have stood shoulder to shoulder with the Strike Eagle.
"If it looks good, it flies good"
Dessault makes the fastest private jet on the market. Sheer beauty of function.
i saw this formidable airplane in demo at le-bourget in the 80's. i think it was the best military jet in the world at this time.
The Rafale is basically the Mirage 4000 2.0. Beautiful aitcraft. 😊👍
The canopy design alone is lovely. The smaller Mirage 2000 lacked the finesse of a full bubble canopy.
0:59 Dah Sow. Da Salt is on the table Dah Sow is in the air.
And there was me worrying so hard to get the museum right at the end :)
@@EdNashsMilitaryMatters That's OK. Better to know about the planes. We can go somewhere else to learn French.
@@EdNashsMilitaryMatters that one was ok :)
As a non-expert I bet I am making a faux-pas, but I can see the lineage of the Typhoon in that plane. Such a shame it was so unlucky in the timing and politics.
the typhoon is more related to rafale than the mirage 4000 but they still be relatively close cause rafale uses design from the 4000. The typhoon was an european aircraft and the french just get out of it and did his own cause the typhoon wasn't really what we wanted.
@@thechuck2684 Makes sense. Thank you.
Mirage 4000 is a Rafale in Pre-Alpha so yes.
Good job, Carter. Another good decision.
Very interresting thanks for the vid. Greetings from France.
Delta wings might appear to be less efficient than other wing configurations but actually it's not true. At high speeds & high G turns, the swept wings & tapered wings lose efficiency due to bending while the Delta wing doesn't. Also Delta wings can store fuel internally & can also provide more hardpoints.
the weakness cines at mid-low speed short radius dogfight turns. at least without canards.
@@winstonwolfe5733 that's where the power to weight ratio comes to play. In short, engines.
Sad end to a fabulous aircraft
Those years saw how manufacturers built jets based on what kind of warfare is happening around. Those years multi-tasking jets is a boom. Like the F-15C Air Superiority fighter that can also be built for as ground support role like the F-15E that can also able to stand up in an air to air combat. The F-16 too as a very flexible flatform for both air to air and air to ground sorties. Today single minded jets like air superiority only flatform no longer have a big selling point like the Eurofighter as new breed of jets or choices has emerge. Like the Flankers, Fulcrums, and the Gripens that is the F-16s biggest competition in every aspect. It even beat the hell of other bigger competitions in "Red Flag"
From this brief video, it appears the M4000 would have been a much better buy than the Tornados for Saudi Arabia.
The deal wasn't just about Tornados, it included Hawk trainers, Jetstream Nav trainers, minesweepers and more plus a continued service and support package in place since they brought Lightnings and Strikemasters in the 60's. The UK largely set up and trained the Saudi AF lending them Hunters and early model Lightnings at the start.
France's package included similar and much more, the much more largely not wanted by the Saudis but the French took a 'take it or leave it' approach.
In the end the Saudis brought 96 Tornado IDS strike aircraft and 24 ADV versions.
I saw the Mirage 4000 at the F.I. 80 and 82 airshows, it was an impressive aircraft but if your own air force won't buy it it harms sales and customers worry about long term technical support.
The Tornado was in service with three nations when the Saudis brought it.
@@grahambuckerfield4640 Thanks! 🙂 That's a good overview.
I never been a fan of Delta Wing aircraft except for the Rafale. But an F-15 fuselage mated to this design is pretty awesome looking.
Take a look at the F 16 XL. Very sexy prototype
WoW amazing 👌👍
French could have offered Mirage 4000 to Indian Airforce , they already operate Mirage 2000 successfully in combat and would have been glad to accept a twin engine Mirage 🤔🙄
Anyway we now have Rafael in the IAF 😀
Not " Rafael " but RAFALE
Instead of mig 29 and su-30mki IAF should have gone for the combination of Mirage 2000 and Mirage 4000.
The M4000 was the EF program Europe needed 20 years before the EF-2000 flew but you know, Europe loves to be separated and shit.
that was a nice video. nice to know who the predecessor to the Rafale was.
Interesting video as always, thank you. It has me curious, what is the most impressive or expensive (Two different questions maybe) Aircraft ever developed that never actually found any sales or entered production. I'd imagine this and the F-20 have to be pretty high on that list, maybe the TSR-2.
🤔 that's a good question!
XB-70? I dont know how much that cost, but my bet is a government funded project will be the winner.
@@EdNashsMilitaryMatters Oh yeah, that's probably a good shout actually. A question for you to ponder on a rainy day maybe.
Considering the fact that the F-20 was more capable than the F-16 at the time, I'd say the Tigershark would've been very highly rated
@@EdNashsMilitaryMatters Good video, but the point of the Mirage F1 exporting success, was even more true to the Mirage III. It would have been better to talk about the Mirage III, which inspired many rivals companies, literally copying the Mirage III concepts and ideas.
For imformation about its size :
The tail fin of the 4000 is as big as the wing of a Mirage F1.
Brilliant jet from brilliant mind, now possible for super jet, love the design.
Will you do a narration video like this for the RC Jet Im developing? It will be flown from FPV as a drone, shaped a bit like the Avro Arrow but single engine
Thank you..some weeks fetore i ask you a video on this plane...the super 4000 would be the high part of high low mix in Arme de l air with the mirage 2000...as similar F15 F16 in USAF
Great stuff
Très intéressant. Merci!
Great video Ed. Superb.
Mirage 4000 had 12840L of fuel, about 10150kg or 22340lbs.
It was a beast in supersonic flight...
to have the ability to go to mach 2.2, it was quite something, i agree
The story of how the Tornado managed to beat the Mirage 4000 sounds very interesting indeed.
Shhhsh or the Saudis will ban RUclips.
The same way the F-104G managed to beat the F11F-1F Super Tiger and Saunders-Roe SR.177.
British Aerospace showed they'd learned how to play Lockheed's game.
An interesting and enjoyable article with great aerial footage, but I do believe you will find that the name is pronounced "Dass-o" not "Dass-olt."
Super vid! Many thanx 👍👍😉
Those delta fighters just look correct. A lovely looking aeroplane.
Thanks Ed...!
the front wings are called foreplanes..NOT canards. Canard is the wing configuration of a main wing and foreplanes, but as with everything these days, people who get this stuff wrong, get copied and before long everyone is saying it incorrectly...
the proper term is that the plane has a canard configuration, consisting of foreplanes and a main wing.
1:48 Footage from the film "Chevaliers du Ciel" best Mirage footage on the web !
It is amazing footage!
It would have been nice to have seen it operational.
beautiful jet .
This is nothing but a Plug for "Les chevaliers du ciel"... cheeky! :P
It's now sitting right next to the first Rafale prototype at the air and space museum
I thought I saw a mirage once …….
Good footage!!
Best looking French fighter.
Beautiful airplane. Probably as good as a F15 at that time.
Had french aur force inducted 50 nos of miraj4k india might have shown interest in purchasing fee of them . Bomb truck F15 us no match to agile miraj4k
F15 in different versions was more versatile...
@@barracuda7018 irrelevant Mirage 4k stayed a prototype
Saw it at Farnborough in 82. I think it was 82. I thought it had gone into service as it was described as being so good.
Well it became Rafale in the coming years. Most of the system developed for it and even the most of the designs went into rafale
@@ismt101 Thank you. Totally unaware of the progression of the Dassualt 4000.
O Mirage é o caça mais bonito do mundo.
Dassault is pronounced, dasso. Good stuff. Rare aircraft.