Dassault-Breguet Mirage 4000

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Dassault Mirage 4000

Mirage 4000 prototype displayed at the Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace at Le Bourget, France.
Type	Prototype fighter aircraft
Manufacturer	Dassault-Breguet
Maiden flight	1979
Status	Program cancelled in the 1980s
Primary users	Royal Saudi Air Force French Air Force
Number built	1

The Mirage 4000 was a prototype jet fighter developed by Dassault-Breguet as a twin engine version of their Mirage 2000. Both planes have much in common, including their engines (SNECMA M53-2), their Delta shape wings and their semi-circular air intake.

The plane first flew in 1979. It was financed as a private venture by Dassault, possibly with Saudi Arabian money. The Mirage 4000 was comparable in size to the United States F-15 Eagle, and would have made an excellent long-range interceptor. Its weight and ordnance capacity also would have made it a very good fighter-bomber, which is what happened with the F-15 when it became the F-15E Strike Eagle.

In the early 1980s Dassault ended the program shortly after the Saudis chose the F-15C as their preferred aircraft. The French Air Force preferred to concentrate on the Mirage 2000, leaving Dassault with no customers. Some of the expertise thus gained would later influence the Dassault Rafale, but the only prototype moved to its final residence at the Paris Air & Space Museum in 1995.