Dassault Mirage III

what is it?

The Dassault Mirage III (French pronunciation: [miʁaʒ]) is a family of single/dual-seat, single-engine, fighter aircraft developed and manufactured by French aircraft company Dassault Aviation. It was the first Western European combat aircraft to exceed Mach 2 in horizontal flight, which it achieved on 24 October 1958. In 1952, the French government issued its specification, calling for a lightweight, all-weather interceptor.

🔎How to recognise it: 2 jet engines · 8.2 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 2,350 km/htop speed
• size 13.7 tmax take-off weight
• built 1,422made 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 70 years ago, in 1956.
• 🏎️Top speed is 18.1× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 💥Faster than sound: up to Mach 1.9 (sea-level speed of sound ≈ 1,235 km/h).
• 🐘Fully loaded it can weigh as much as 2 African elephants (~6 t each).
• 🏔️Can fly 1.9× 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

1956-11-17

introduced

1961

status

still flying

number built

1,422

role

interceptor aircraft

origin

🇫🇷 France

makers

Dassault Aviation

engines

2× SNECMA Atar 09C / SEPR 841 / Atar

crew

1

length

15 m

wingspan

8.2 m

height

4.5 m

max take-off weight

13.7 t

top speed

2,350 km/h

range

—

ceiling

17,000 m

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