Mirage 4000: The French F15

[Trotrodor 2,670]

Hi everyone,

 

Today I want to prompose you the Mirage 4000 as both the F15 and the Su 27 have been suggested by other people.

 

And comparing the 4000 to the F15 and the Su 27 is pretty suited, as like both of them, the 4000 was supposed to be the heavy french fighter, while the 2000 would have been the light like the F16 and the Mig 29.

 

This aircraft would be a perfect match for the early F15 and the early Su 27, with fox 1 and fox 2 missile, its a perfect starter aircraft for rank VII and for the first gen 4 aircraft !

 

The Mirage 4000

 

 

History

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In parallel with the design of the Mirage 2000, Dassault began studying a twin-engine concept based on the M-53 reactor in September 1976. This aircraft took up most of the concepts developed with the 2000, including the return to delta wing and fly-by-wire flight controls. It was developed with equity capital by Dassault and the manufacturers participating in the program, which had hoped to have it financed by the government. The aircraft was designed under the leadership of Bruno Revellin-Falcoz.

The new aircraft, named Super Mirage 4000, was built in composite materials, had flight adjustable duck decks, a carbon fiber fin containing fuel (675 liters) and was significantly larger and heavier than the 2000. Initially intended for air superiority, low altitude penetration and nuclear strike, it was thus a competitor of the F-15 by its performances, its maneuverability, its dimensions and its weight (it belonged to the 20 tons class). In particular, the 4000 had a thrust/weight ratio greater than one, which guaranteed an excellent climb speed. In fact, it was able to fly vertically from takeoff. The direction of the flight tests was then entrusted to Jacques Desmazures.

The Mirage 4000 made its first flight in the hands of Jean-Marie Saget on March 9, 1979. The flight lasted 50 minutes and the aircraft exceeded Mach 1. From the outset the new aircraft left an excellent impression on its test pilot, who judged it to be a success from the outset. It crossed Mach 2 at its 6th flight, on April 11. He showed his ability to reach 50,000 feet and Mach 2 in 3 minutes 50.

As of June, the aircraft was presented in flight at the Paris Air Show. As the Mirage 4000 is an in-house project with no official order, no engines were allocated to it and it flew with M-53s from the Mirage 2000 program, either M53-2s or M53-5s. Between August and October 1980 the aircraft was fitted with a new composite tail fin and flew on 27 October of that year. By this time the aircraft had already been presented several times to interested Iraqi delegations and the Shah of Iran. Alas, the beginning of the Iran-Iraq war put an end to the projects. In June 1981, it flew again at the Paris Air Show, this time in an armed configuration, with six Magic missile models. It was also presented at Farnborough in 1982.

In 1983, it was parked at the end of the runway in Istres, until 1985. At that time Saudi Arabia, which had just purchased 72 Tornadoes, again expressed interest in the Mirage 4000. To the point where they were considering an order for 100 units and taking over the industrialization of the aircraft, which represented a contract worth 100 billion francs. The first production examples were scheduled for delivery in 1990. The aircraft had been parked outside for 2 years, but its flight rehabilitation was shorter than feared, and the direction of the flight tests was entrusted to Marylène Hermitte. Flights resumed on December 18, 1985. Jean-Marie Saget, who had reached the age limit, was replaced by Louis Eon. At the beginning of 1986, the cockpit was modified to house a navigation and attack system. A Thomson-CSF "Cyrano 500" radar was also envisaged, a more powerful derivative of the RDM, equipped with an 80 cm antenna. It was presented again at the Farnborough boat show in 1986.

In 1987, the aircraft was tested in heavy ground attack configurations. The aircraft was presented to King Fahd in Nice, and it was on this occasion that Serge Dassault declared that "it is not only the Americans who know how to make high-performance aircraft". On May 22, 1987, on the occasion of the 280th flight, the aircraft was re-equipped with M53-P2, developing 6560 kg dry and 9700 kg with reheating. This required a slight modification of the air inlets. In this configuration, the 4000 was able to fly for 18 minutes at Mach 2, which is enormous. It was then called simply "Mirage 4000" and put on a desert type camouflage, at the time of the 1987 Paris Air Show, always to seduce Saudi Arabia. Alas, Saudi Arabia had been offered the F-15, the Americans apparently considering the 4000 dangerous for their own exports.

On January 8, 1988, after 336 flights and 350 flying hours, the only Mirage 4000 prototype was stored outside at Istres. It joined the Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace in 1992, but was in rather poor condition and had to be restored by volunteers before being exhibited in 2002.

 

 

Specification

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• Crew: 1
• Length: 18.7 m
• Wingspan: 12 m
• Height: 5.8 m
• Wing area: 72.7 m²
• weight: 13400 kg (empty), 17740 kg (combat), 32000 (max).
• Wing loading: 220 kg/m² at combat weight
• Fuel capacity: approx 9 tonnes of internal fuel
• Powerplant: 2* SNECMA M53-2 (5500 kg dry and 8500 with Afterburner) or 2* SNECMA M53-5 (5613 kg dry and 9000 with Afterburner) or 2* SNECMA M53-P2 (6560 kg dry and 9700 with Afterburner)

 

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Performance

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• Maximum speed: 2,445 km/h (1,519 mph, 1,320 kn) max level speed
• Maximum speed: Mach 2.3
• Maximum sustained speed: M 2.2
• Approach speed: 260 km/h (160 mph; 140 kn)
• Range: 2,000 km (1,200 mi, 1,100 nmi)
• Combat range: 1,850 km (1,150 mi, 1,000 nmi) plus, with external tanks and recce pod
• Service ceiling: 20,000 m (66,000 ft)
• Rate of climb: 305 m/s (60,000 ft/min)
• Time to altitude: 15,000 m (49,213 ft) and Mach 2 in 3 minutes

 

• T/W
• With M53-2 with afterburner empy: 1.27
• With M53-5 with afterburner empy: 1.34
• With M53-P2 with afterburner empy: 1.45

 

File needed for modeling

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Weapons

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Wide variety of configurations are possible :

 

 

All french weapons of the Era could be mounted on it

 

6* Magic

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2*Magic, 2* AS30, 2* Rocket pod, 2* Lazer bomb and 2*Fuel tank

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other weapons include R530 ...

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12 hardoint on the 4000, with 8000 kg of load :

 

Possible air to air :

4* Magic on the 2 outer wing mount

2* Super R530 on the inner wing mount

2* Super R530 under the fuselage

 

 

 

cockpit

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Xray

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This aircraft is proposed as an early Tier VII aircraft

 

Sources :

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• Forum secret projects
• https://aviationsmilitaires.net/v3/kb/aircraft/show/1029/dassault-mirage-4000#tab:tab-historique
• https://www.museeairespace.fr/aller-plus-haut/collections/dassault-super-mirage-4000/

 

Edited December 3, 2020 by Trotrodor

[Miki_Hoshii 2,449]

Open for discussion.

[FouManchou 2,463]

And I thought the French F15 was... the F15 !


In any case, big plus one. It's a shame the 4000 wasn't adopted, and it will be quite necessary for balance as the only French aircraft with more than 4 AAMs before Rafale.

[Cedjoe 5,482]

+1

That's an iconic aircraft even though it didn't see service.

 

Btw it could mount the Super 530F and D, not the R530 (and the Super R530 doesn't exist ), and only if we consider the version that could've seen service with the Cyrano 500 radar (development of the Cyrano 5 aka RDM which was probably also tested on the Mirage 4000, I think we can see it in one of the pictures) which could receive the same performance as the RDI which was itself also a development of the RDM. It should also be able to use the Magic 2 and not only the first version.

 

Also, there are no rocket pods in this picture, the thing that looks like one is a Antilope radar pod.

Spoiler

 

And I also noticed this hybrid droptank/missile carrier in the first picture which could bring the amount of magics carried to 8 :

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32 minutes ago, FouManchou said:

And I thought the French F15 was... the F15 !

More legit than some things in game 

33 minutes ago, FouManchou said:

In any case, big plus one. It's a shame the 4000 wasn't adopted, and it will be quite necessary for balance as the only French aircraft with more than 4 AAMs before Rafale.

The Mirage 2000-5 also got 6 missiles and the Mirage F1 could in theory carry 5 although in service there was always at least one pylon used for a droptank.

[FouManchou 2,463]

34 minutes ago, Cedjoe said:

More legit than some things in game 

Let's just agree that F-15 and F/A-18 have as much of a place in the French tech tree as the VT-1 in the German tech tree.

[Cedjoe 5,482]

4 minutes ago, FouManchou said:

Let's just agree that F-15 and F/A-18 have as much of a place in the French tech tree as the VT-1 in the German tech tree.

That's mostly what I was referring to 

[DoxerWhite@psn 82]

+1

[Abaddon75 460]

Yes plz

[Milocat 4,848]

+1 when we get other Gen 4 fighters.

[Bringer_Of_War 901]

A plane I can almost consider more beautiful than the gorgeous rafale

Absolute +1 as we will need something to answer to the F-15s and the likes in the future

 

[Arghail 1,220]

A nice pic showing off the air breaks :

Edited December 8, 2020 by Arghail

[Kasukaru 2,164]

The 4000 was pretty much the testbed for the Rafale, even though it wasn't technically its prototype. It has its full place in game, at the very least as a premium if not in the normal tech tree. +4000 (obviously).

[MonkeyBussiness 1,228]

+1 so if i resume correctly it could carry as a max air to air loadout 2 r530 under the fuselage + 2 r530 under the wing (inner pylons) + 2 magic (on the outer pylons) ?

[Cedjoe 5,482]

36 minutes ago, MonkeyBussiness said:

+1 so if i resume correctly it could carry as a max air to air loadout 2 r530 under the fuselage + 2 r530 under the wing (inner pylons) + 2 magic (on the outer pylons) ?

6 magics and possibly 8 with a special pylon, or 4 Super 530F or D + 2 magics if it had seen service (never tested with SARH AFAIK). The R530 was already outdated.

Edited December 6, 2020 by Cedjoe

[panzerknoef 695]

+1 I can definitely see this plane being a huge bonus to the French tech tree on the long term. 

[Trotrodor 2,670]

From behind

[Arakneo 856]

On 03/12/2020 at 10:48, Trotrodor said:

 

 

 

 

Weapons

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Wide variety of configurations are possible :

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

isn t that a mika em behind the magic 2?

Edited January 20, 2021 by Arakneo

[Cedjoe 5,482]

57 minutes ago, Arakneo said:

isn t that a mika em behind the magic 2?

No it's an AS.30 Laser.

[Arakneo 856]

7 minutes ago, Cedjoe said:

No it's an AS.30 Laser.

i m talking about this one

[Arghail 1,220]

1 minute ago, Arakneo said:

i m talking about this one

 

The MICA was developed in the mid 90's, I hardly doubt this is it.

[Cedjoe 5,482]

12 minutes ago, Arakneo said:

i m talking about this one

Oh it's not behind, it's in front of the Magic. That one is a Super 530F.

Edit : I wasn't looking at the same Magic 

Edited January 20, 2021 by Cedjoe

[Arakneo 856]

2 minutes ago, Cedjoe said:

Oh it's not behind, it's in front of the Magic. That one is a Super 530F.

oh ok i was talking about the magic on the ground, sorry for the confusion

[Cedjoe 5,482]

1 minute ago, Arakneo said:

oh ok i was talking about the magic on the ground, sorry for the confusion

np

[Cpt_Bel_V 4,789]

Just now, Cedjoe said:

Oh it's not behind, it's in front of the Magic. That one is a Super 530F.

F or D,... I'll have said D since it was the variant installed for the Mirage 2000-C.

 

Btw, english Wikipedia is talking of 8 to 14 Advanced missiles, 2 Long Range, and 4 AGM maximum. 

[Arakneo 856]

6 minutes ago, Cpt_Bel_V said:

F or D,... I'll have said D since it was the variant installed for the Mirage 2000-C.

 

Btw, english Wikipedia is talking of 8 to 14 Advanced missiles, 2 Long Range, and 4 AGM maximum. 

look like an F, the wing seems too big to be a D