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The Dassault Mercure was a French twin-engined narrow-body jet-powered airliner. It was proposed in 1967, its first production flight was in 1973 and it last flew in 1995. The aircraft only flew with Air Inter and had very little success, resulting in only 12 aircraft built, all between 1971 - 1975. ==Design and development== In 1967, backed by the French government, Dassault decided to propose a competitor to the Boeing 737. This would attack this market segment at the upper end with a 140-seat jetliner, compared to the 100-seat Boeing 737-100 and the 115-seat Boeing 737-200 variants then in production. This aircraft would be an opportunity for Dassault to show the civilian market its knowledge of high-speed aerodynamics and low speed lift capability previously developed by producing a long line of jet fighters, such as the Dassault Ouragan, Dassault Mystère and Dassault Mirage aircraft. Marcel Dassault, founder and owner of Dassault, decided to name the aircraft ''Mercure'' (French for Mercury). "Wanting to give the name of a god of mythology, I found of them only one which had wings with its helmet and ailerons with its feet, from where the Mercure name.." said Marcel Dassault.〔("CAEA: Mercure 100." ) ''Conservatoire de l'Air et de l'Espace d'Aquitaine (CAEA)''. Retrieved: 21 June 2009.〕 Extremely modern computer tools for the time were used to develop the wing of the Mercure 100. Even though it was larger than the Boeing 737, the Mercure 100 was the faster of the two. In June 1969, a full scale mockup was presented during the Paris Airshow at Le Bourget airport. On 4 April 1971, the prototype Mercure 01 rolled out of Dassault's Bordeaux-Merignac plant.〔''Flight International'' 22 April 1971, p. 539.〕 It was powered by two Pratt & Whitney JT8D-11 (6800 kg of thrust). The first flight took place in Merignac on 28 May 1971.〔Uijthoven 2005, p. 70.〕 The second prototype, which was powered by two Pratt & Whitney JT8D-15 (the engine which would be used on all subsequent Mercures built), flew for the first time on 7 September 1972.〔Uijthoven 2005, p. 73.〕 On 19 July 1973, the first production aircraft made its maiden flight. The Mercure received its Type certificate on 12 February 1974, and on 30 September 1974, was certified for Category IIIA approach all-weather automatic landing (minimum visibility = 500 ft, minimum ceiling = 50 ft).〔Taylor 1976, p. 56.〕 The Mercure 100 was also the first commercial airliner to be operated by a 100% female crew on one of its flights.〔 Dassault tried to attract the interest of major airlines and several regional airlines, by touting the Mercure 100 as a replacement for the Douglas DC-9. A few airlines showed some initial interest but only Air Inter, a domestic French airline, placed an order. This lack of interest was due to several factors, including the devaluation of the dollar and the oil crisis of the 1970s, but mainly because of the Mercure's operating range – suitable for domestic European operations but unable to sustain longer routes. At maximum payload, the aircraft's range was only 1,700 km. Consequently, the Mercure 100 achieved no foreign sales. With a total of only 10 sales with one of the prototypes refurbished and sold as the 11th Mercure to Air Inter, the airliner represented the worst failure of a commercial airliner in terms of aircraft sold. The number of sales was less than other poor-selling jet aircraft with less than 100 units sold, such as the Concorde (14 produced, 20 including prototypes and preproduction aircraft), the VFW-Fokker 614, Airbus A318, Convair 880 and 990, Vickers VC-10, Tupolev Tu-144, Boeing 737-600, 747SP, 747-300, 757-300 and Boeing 767-400 (these Boeing poor-selling types were however variants of successful models). After the commercial failure of the Mercure 100, Marcel Dassault asked his engineers to develop a new version of the Mercure, the Mercure 200C in cooperation with Air France, it was to carry 140 passengers with a range of 2,200 km. Several major airlines in the United States showed some interest in the project. However, the project design costs were also high. This might have been mitigated if the original Mercure had had a larger fuel capacity or sufficient design strength so that additional fuel tanks could have been easily added. At the beginning of 1973, an agreement was created with the French government to finance this programme. Dassault was to receive a loan of 200-million French Francs from the French government, which would be paid back based on sales after the 201st aircraft was delivered. But Air France wanted an airliner powered with the Pratt & Whitney JT8D-117, which was quieter and larger than the JT8D-15. Dassault needed an additional loan of 80-million French Francs from the government to accommodate Air France's request. The French government replied to Dassault that it had to carry half of the development costs of the Mercure 200C on their own, which was impossible after the commercial failure of the Mercure 100. The Mercure 200C project was then canceled. Later, in order to answer a request from the DGAC (''Direction Générale de l'Aviation Civile'', the French civil aviation authority), Dassault proposed a Mercure equipped with a new engine developed by General Electric/Snecma called the CFM-56; this version came to be known as the Mercure 200. In 1975, contacts were made with Douglas and Lockheed to build and sell the Mercure 200 in the US, and with SNIAS to build it in France. But Marcel Dassault was concerned about the fact that the CFM-56 had not had a single order yet, and production might end before the Mercure 200 could be built. Meanwhile, Douglas introduced a stretched version of the DC-9, which was in direct competition for orders with the Mercure 200. Contacts with Douglas logically ended at that point. Dassault then initiated contacts with General Dynamics, their primary competitor in the military jet market where the Mirage F1 was facing the F-16 Fighting Falcon. Nothing would come out of these contacts. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Dassault Mercure」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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