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 counterpart to the American Boeing 737. It was Dassault's first venture into the commercial jet airliner market, the company having traditionally built fighters and executive jets. On 28 May 1971, the prototype conducted its maiden flight, while the type entered service on 4 June 1974 with French airline Air Inter. Attempts were made to market the type in the US, including partnerships with American manufacturers Douglas, Lockheed and General Dynamics, with the vision of producing it in the United States. However, the Mercure had very little success on the market, which has been attributed to several factors, including a lack of range in comparison to rival aircraft. As a consequence, there were only 12 aircraft constructed, all of which were built between 1971 and 1975. The Mercure performed its final flight in 1995. The Dassault Mercure was a jet-powered narrow-body jet airliner, optimised for short-haul routes. It intentionally exchanged fuel for passenger capacity in order to carry a greater passenger load; as such, the Mercure had up to 17 per cent more seats than the competing Boeing 737 while having a shorter range. It was designed to be outfitted with a two-crew flight deck, although operator Air Inter had its aircraft flown by three-man crews. According to Flight International, the basic model of the Mercure featured a degree of built-in stretch potential; elements of the design were reportedly capable of supporting the envisioned expanded model with little or no change, including much of the wing, cabin, and the undercarriage, the latter being spaced in order to accommodate the fitting of longer legs to in turn enable larger engines and an elongated fuselage to be later adopted. For more information on the Mercure, click here.
