Dassault Mercure

what is it?

The Dassault Mercure is a twin-engined narrow-body jet-powered airliner developed and manufactured by French aircraft firm Dassault Aviation. According to Dassault, it was the first large-scale European cooperative civil aeronautics programme. During 1967, the Mercure was proposed as a French competitor to the American Boeing 737.

🔎How to recognise it: 2 jet engines · retractable tricycle gear · 30.6 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 704 km/htop speed
• range 2,084 kmwithout refuelling
• seats 162passengers
• size 56.5 tmax take-off weight
• built 12made in total

Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).

fun facts

• 🎂First flew 55 years ago, in 1971.
• 🏎️Top speed is 5.4× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 🚗Wingspan of 30.6 m: about 7 cars parked nose to tail.
• 🐘Fully loaded it can weigh as much as 9 African elephants (~6 t each).
• 🌍Range of 2,084 km: 12× Amsterdam to Brussels.
• 🏔️Can fly 1.3× higher than Mount Everest (8,849 m).

jet: Gas turbine pushing air out the back (turbofan or turbojet): fast and high-flying.

spec sheet

first flight

1971-05-28

introduced

1974

retired

1995

status

retired

number built

12

role

narrow-body jet airliner

origin

🇫🇷 France

makers

Dassault Aviation

engines

2× Pratt & Whitney JT8D-15

crew

3

passengers

162

length

34.8 m

wingspan

30.6 m

height

11.4 m

max take-off weight

56.5 t

top speed

704 km/h

cruise speed

926 km/h

range

2,084 km

ceiling

11,887 m

landing gear

retractable tricycle gear

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.