A Commercial Failure: The Dassault Mercure Story
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 ส.ค. 2024
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In the late 1960s, French aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation made a huge bet. The company designed its first commercial airliner, the Mercure 100, to do one thing fantastically well; fly short routes more efficiently than any other airliner. With ambitions to take on rival giants like Boeing and Douglas, Dassault invested huge sums into developing an airliner with unprecedented short-range performance. Anticipating demand for hundreds of aircraft, the company even built several factories across France.
But Dassault's new aircraft would go down as one of the worst commercial failures in aviation history, as virtually no airline ended up wanting it. Despite aggressive marketing, the aircraft refused to sell. Among other factors, it simply didn’t have enough range compared to its rivals the Boeing 737 and Douglas DC-9. While the Mercure was highly efficient, airlines wanted an aircraft that also had the versatility to fly both short and medium range routes.
The airliner had so carefully been optimized for short haul routes, that its airframe couldn't easily be adapted into a longer range variant. Developing a longer-range version of the Mercure would have been far too expensive to ever be profitable for the company. Dassault had basically engineered itself into a corner. Only 10 production aircraft were ever sold, to a single French airline (Air Inter), at the behest of the French government. #Dassault #Mercure #Airliners #Airplanes
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Seems like the Mercure was only 35 years early to the party, tbh. If it had only come out in the late 90s/early to mid 2000s everyone would be buying them up.
It would be in competition with the B 737 and A 320. Also it would need modern engines
@@STEN3326 well obviously, the isn't the shanghai y-10, obviously if it had been released around 1990 it would have high tech equipment for the era and not obsolete equipment from the 60s.
@@karlosbricks2413 In any case, Dassault is powerful enough to redesign its Mercure, which would be qualitatively at the same level as Boeing and Airbus. The pilots who flew on it appreciated it a lot for its flexibility of flying.
It was late. By the time the Mercure got off the ground, the B737 (which the Mercure strikingly resembles) and the DC-9 had already been flying for a number of years.
@Gappie Al Kebabi dunno, don't remember what i was really thinking half a year ago. Fair question though
Anyone who have played Airline Manager will recognise this plane as the best and most economical short range aircraft
StardustNotHötzendorf
They created the regional jet but did not know it. Focused on boeing...huge mistake
hell yeah. dassault "money machine" mercure.
"Anyone who have played Airline Manager"
Sounds miserable.
you've never been a kid? fuckin jackass
Haha absolutely spot on. It's the perfect starter in AM2.
You can fly the Mercure anywhere you want.
As long as its from France.
Fine, Carles de Gaulle Airport is the busiest airport in the EU.
Not quite Stephane, but may become so after Brexit: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_busiest_airports_in_Europe
Heathrow is busier...
Not even. France includes Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Pacific Islands, New Caledonia and south pole territories 10 times larger than the rest of France. but for linking Besancon to Dijon it might be more interesting than train or the motorway.
France is awesome ;-)
Vive la France
The lesson? What your customers want is more important than the elegance of your technical solution.
But also the dangers of market research, your customers showing interest in your idea, doesn't mean they would actually buy it over rivals once it comes to market
Also what may sound awesome on paper and design is not necessarily practical at all times
@@titan133760 b
@@benrgrogan absolutely this!
Except that didn't work for either the VC-10 or the Bristol Britannia, both of which were made to srvice BOAC who later changed their minds and rejected their own specifications.
I was a Commercial Pilot for 50 years- USAF, Pan Am, United- when I was forced to retire, I went to work for Netjets, flying DA Falcon 2000's. WONDERFUL Airplane! Not sure about the Mercure, but their Engineers are fantastic!
From what I've heard it was also enjoyed by its pilots. It pretty much had fighter jet controls, I saw a video of its display at La Ferté Alais (facebook.com/avialogs/videos/10150776372024969/), very impressive. So sad it didn't made it to the market, Dassault buid fantastic planes
I used to build Falcon 900's, predecessor to the 2000's. They were originally designed and certificated as a 20 pax RJ! They will even operate off grass strips! There is a lot of Genius in the Dassault Falcon line!
Herbert Fischer
Uh, if you are working as a pilot, you still are a commercial pilot. I hop LOL
Hey Herbert,
I was a mechaninc on one of these in a museum near LFBD Bordeaux-Merignac Airport.
Imagine having a very lightweight, nimble and agile A320, and in the cockpit a *Mirage head-up display* (in the 60s!!!). At the time, it was a considered a honor for the pilots we interviewed.
I work on falcons and I agree 2000s are amazing haha
"The story of French civil aviation didn't end with the Mercure, it was really just the beginning..."
As I Mercure was banking away, I was expecting an A320 to come in and take its spot.
Me too
In hindsight, we do get a video on the A300 about a year later.
7:45 it looks like the plane has winked at me. Showing of its magnificence 😂
Everyone playing Airline Manager knows this as the best starter plane.
Eurica my starting airplane was 777-200 cause I operated LHR-JFK
link to Airline manager ?
Wow. The graphics is top notch! The content too but the graphics....O.o
The graphics are so good that it also reminds me I need a new computer too! : (
@@largol33t1 u5ewt
You that's what it's all about, the graphics.
He’s actually recording real life
Yes they is
I remember when Piedmont Airlines received their first 737-300 . the new engines were a true game changer. it was an awesome plane.
except for the rudder
It was actually a great aircraft. They were just really early, when flight travel was still not accessible to the masses. The ten which were built turned out to be very reliable, efficient, and cost-effective. The economic troubles of the 1970s unfortunately doomed this jet. If Dassault designed another short-range jet in the 1980s, when the economy was booming, I'm sure they would have sold quite well.
One year from now:
This video is made possible by Boeing. Get your own Beoing 747 today!
And also, go to www.boeing.com/mustard to get 40% off your first plane!
More like the 737 max
@@xri0tt Given that it's a large jet aircraft that is actually a really significant discount.
Isaac Bailey - with what happened to the Max (40% discount is NORMAL in the aviation business for ANY metal) once the SOFTWARE is fixed and find a new engine for them I'd say more like 70% DISCOUNT!!!!
Lol that's already possible. There's some nice used aircraft buying sites out there and when I was looking for a Cessna 172 I saw there were actually a couple 747 from the 70s listed, nice plain color with no livery too.
I don't know much about planes, I'm more of a car guy myself, but this channel's videos are so awesome its sparking an interest within me.
Aircraft are even more interesting than cars. Especially when you get into experimental aircraft. We used to have a lot of crazy ideas about the airplane of the future, and back then we also had the guts and money to test the ideas out! Hiller made a helicopter that was powered by ramjets placed at the tips of the rotors. It was called the hornet, it was ridiculously loud, and had terrible fuel economy so it never became much more than a curiosity.
The US also tested parasite fighter jets for a while, the idea being that you could have a bomber carry a fighter with them, drop the fighter when enemies attacked, and once the fighter defeated the enemy, could re-dock with the bomber. This didn't work for a variety of reasons.
Personally I don't care much for experimental aircraft. They are interesting in their way, but generally failed for a reason. I'd rather read about the successful experiments that went on to become production aircraft that served.
No reason you can't like both. I love cars, and I love aircraft. I also find trains (locomotives, especially) fascinating. In fact, I've grown away from cars a bit as I get older; just don't have the time or inclination to keep up, although it kind of bothers me when I think of everything I'm missing by no longer religiously reading all the car magazines and books I can get my hands on. Partly I just don't like the newer, high tech cars, as impressive as they may be, and partly the magazines themselves have gone downhill with internet competition (and reading car articles online just isn't the same).
I always thought it was interesting that it seems like some of the primary things people are "into" are all forms of transportation: automobiles, rail roads, aircraft, ships (both sailing and powered), and horses. Those all seem to be especially popular areas for amateur enthusiasts. Maybe I am reading too much into it; you also have history and military history, guns and weapons, economics, music; the list goes on and on. How to define what's the most popular. But when people build models (another area itself), they seem to tend to focus on transport, whether civilian or military. Tanks, trucks, ships, boats, cars...not much else. You don't see many model buildings being built (there's another....architecture).
justforever96 I stopped buying car magazines mainly because of the delay in information, I'd always have to wait a month longer before knowing anything about a new car. That said I still prefer reading on paper than on screen.
I like cars more than other forms of transport simply because I have access to it more often than the others. So I felt the passion to learn more about it. Planes on the other hand are something that I rarely ever get to sit in. I don't travel a lot so the interest in knowing isn't as high.
What you said about amatuer enthusiasts liking all forms of transportation is definitely true though. Although I do feel like the younger generation aren't as interested in these as much as the older generation.
The mercure would've been amazing to use in SEA considering that it's a relatively small region but very packed with cities.
Horizon's Q400s do the same job at a fraction of the cost.
@@mirzaahmed6589 I think they meant Southeast Asia, not Seattle. ATRs dominate the super short haul SEA market, with only a few airlines operating the Q400
Not sure how that would have worked considering in Asia it’s somewhat common to see wide bodies used on short-haul international, and sometimes even domestic flights
@@mirzaahmed6589 Ironic that you think America is the only country in the world despite your name.
Mustard: Another case of a known Military Jet Manufacturer bumbling into Airliners.
Alongside the Lockheed L-1011 Tristar. Only in their case it was stuffing the L-1011 with as many impressive (but not useful enough to justify their cost at that time) technical features as it would hold, almost as though it was a military contract.
Lockheed had built many Airliners before the L-1011 and if Rolls-Royce would have delivered the engines on time would have done just fine.
I thought the L-1011 was their first airliner in something like 10 years, but I may well be wrong about that.
I thought it was killed by it's price, not the engine issues. Again, I may well be wrong about that.
Ten years really isn't that long and Lockheed didn't really pigeon hole engineers military/civilian; Kelly Johnson got his start there when he pointed out an instability problem with the piston power twin engine Electra that he found but couldn't quite quantify with the tools he had as an engineering student. Lockheed gave him some money and a bunch of wind-tunnel time. Kelly rather promptly came back with the problem well quantified and a fix for it and was hired as an engineer with his solution (the twin tail) being applied to the Electra. Not much later he designed the P-38. it is doubtful that they had lost much institutional knowledge about airliners since they fixed the four engine turboprop L-188 Electra and turned it into the P-3 Orion for the navy. Besides most of that 10 years was spent developing the L-1011.
If the engines had been delivered on time the L-1911 would have only been competing with other tri-jets for long enough to get sufficient sales but Airbus had came out with a large, less expensive twin-jet airliner like the airlines had really wanted in the first place but had been convinced were a bad bet because of the beginning to be out of date over water restrictions that didn't get changed until the Boeing 777 and a large pack of lawyers forced the FAA to face reality on the subject much later.
Sorry but this is historiaclly wromg: Dassault is Resistance Name for Marcel Bloch and before WWII he built Airliners.
The Commerical failure Shanghai Y-10
It's on my list!
It doesn't exist... (ok they actually showed it to Joe Shutter, father of 747, he said in his book, beside the controls are quite heavy, it was a good looking plane. But ultimately US loosened export restriction to China made superior Boeing jet easily purchasable, so it was swiftly canceled. Poor thing never made it to flight with only one prototype built.)
Or better commercial failure of A380 (it haven't break even yet)
and it never will. era of jumbo jets are over. sad to see 747 go down like this.
Philip Schneider It looks like a 737-200
Dude! This such good quality content! It is great! Keep up with the great work! And keep the airplane videos coming, I love aviation history!
I don't really care for it, but when Mustard makes a video about it, it doesnt matter. It is always interesting.
BR
The quality of your videos are amazing!
E Cognitio
I hate how people go "Oh!!! Another airplane!" I think there is never enough of these of these videos. I love these videos. People get so annoyed when these videos come out. Yet they don't even know what the subject of the video is.
punyhunk is best, yeah I feel the same too 😎
what are you even talking about
Thais was one I didn't know about I can see how the Mecure laid the foundation for the Airbus A320 series. A lot of the Dassault engineers would have gone over Airbus when the 320 was in development.
Well not really since dassault and Aérospatiale (ancestor of Airbus ) are rivals
One of the best channels on TH-cam. Quality and presentation are second to none. Couldn't have clicked this video any faster!
Wait.. Is this wendover's third channel?
No, but I love youtubers like this. Especially ones that talk about airplanes!
No different person
Dat Ass voices aren't anything alike. But it is a very similar topic
Nowerdy could you recommend some more channels like this one
Sure.
Company Man*
Second Thought (Animated)
Half as interesting (Wendovers second channel)*
Life Noggin (animated)
Kurzgesagt (animated)
Real life lore
PolyMatter (Animated)*
Business Casual*
I put a star next to ones that are most similar and I would recommend the most if you like this channel. Let me know if there are any others! I just went through my subscription list (of over 1000 people) to find similar ones. :)
Please continue with the airplane videos. You are doing such a wonderful job making aviation history come alive! I can't thank you enough!
This is the story of the Mercure
Development
Engineering
During the mid-1960s, Marcel Dassault, the founder and owner of French aircraft company Dassault Aviation, as well as other parties such as the French Directorate General for Civil Aviation (DGAC), examined the civil aviation market and noticed that there was no existing aircraft that was intended specifically to serve low-distance air routes. Thus, it was found that there could be a prospective market for such an airliner, if it were to be developed. The DGAC was keen to promote a French equivalent to the popular American Boeing 737, and suggested the development of a 140-seat airliner to Dassault.
In 1967, with the issuing of backing by the French government, Dassault decided to commence work on its short-haul airliner concept. During 1968, the initial studies performed by the company's research team were orientated around a 110 to 120-seat airliner which was powered by a pair of rear-mounted Rolls Royce Spey turbofan engines; as time went on, a specification for a 150-seat aircraft with a 1000-km range (540 nm) was developed. As envisioned, the new airliner would attack this market segment at the upper end with a 140-seat jetliner, contrasting against the 100-seat Boeing 737-100 and the 115-seat Boeing 737-200 variants then in production. In April 1969, the development programme was officially launched.
This aircraft was viewed as being a major opportunity for Dassault to demonstrate upon the civilian market its knowledge of high-speed aerodynamics and low-speed lift capability that had previously been developed in the production of a long line of jet fighters, such as the Ouragan, Mystère and Mirage aircraft. The French Government contributed 56 per cent of the programme's total development costs, which was intended to be repaid by Dassault via a levy on sales of the airliner. The company also financed the initiative with $10 million of its own money, as well as being mainly responsible for costs related to manufacture.
According to aerospace publication Flight International, the design of the new airliner had been shaped by Dassault's "philosophy of aiming the aircraft at a corner of the market which it believes existing types do not adequately serve". Marcel 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. 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 Testing
On 28 May 1971, the maiden flight of the first prototype, powered by a pair of Pratt & Whitney JT8D-11 turbofan engines, capable of generating up to 6,800 kgf (15,000 lbf) of thrust, took place at Mérignac. On 7 September 1972, the second prototype, which was powered by a pair of Pratt & Whitney JT8D-15 engines, which would be used on all subsequent Mercures built, flew for the first time. On 19 July 1973, the first production aircraft conducted its maiden flight. On 12 February 1974, the Mercure received its Type certificate and, on 30 September 1974, was certified for Category IIIA approach all-weather automatic landing (minimum visibility = 500 ft, minimum ceiling = 50 ft). The Mercure 100 was also the first commercial airliner to be operated by a 100% female crew on one of its flights.
Design
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.
The wing of the Mercure was largely conventional; it was relatively thick, possessing a section of 12.5 per cent thickness at the wing root, slimming to 8.5 per cent thickness at the tip of the wing. Aspects of the Mercure's wing, such as the general layout and individual wing sections, were optimised using a combination of wind tunnel tests and computer-generated simulations by Dassault's design team. The wing had a good lift/drag ratio and a high block efficiency; the flaps formed a continuous spanwise unit when deployed in the take-off position, neither low-speed ailerons or cut-outs to accommodate jet exhaust due to the engines have been fixed low down upon deep pylons.
Production Mercures were powered by a pair of Pratt & Whitney JT8D-15 turbofan engines, capable of generating a maximum of 15,500 lb (69 kN) thrust. These were mounted on underwing pylons, which were designed with anti-vibration mountings; the engines themselves featured joint Snecma/Dassault-developed thrust reverser and noise suppression system. Significant attention had been paid to reducing engine noise, this issue having been one of the final topics of research during the Mercure's development; according to Flight International, there was a perception that the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States, a major potential market for the Mercure, may enact regulations that would necessitate the implementation of a noise-attenuation retrofit programme, and thus Dassault needed to be prepared to address this foreseen scenario.
Dassault emphasized the commercial value of the Mercure, highlighting its low operating costs across short sectors, which principally resulted from its refined aerodynamic features and low structural weight. The design also benefitted from an advanced fail-safe structure, the majority of which having been milled in accordance to Dassault's traditional military manufacturing practices. The Mercure featured in-house-developed triplicated, fail-safe hydraulic flight control system; the flight controls lacked any manual reversion. Air conditioning also featured independent duplicated systems with a cross-feed tapped from the engines compressors along with, unusually, the auxiliary power unit for use during takeoffs and on the ground, as well as in the instance of a double-engine failure scenario. The electrics were composed of a pair of independent 120/128 volt three-phase 400 Hz AC systems fed via engine-driven alternators, while a third AC system was driven by the APU; in addition, there are three independent 28 volt DC sources.
Operational History
Intending for the Mercure to be mass-produced in substantial numbers (According to Flight International, the 300th aircraft was projected to be delivered by the end of 1979), Dassault established a total of four plants especially for the Mercure program: Martignas (close to Bordeaux), Poitiers, Seclin (close to Lille) and Istres. Additional manufacturing work was distributed across locations throughout Europe, the production program being a collaborative effort between Dassault, Fiat Aviazione of Italy, SABCA (Société Anonyme Belge de Constructions Aéronautiques) of Belgium, Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA (CASA) of Spain and the Swiss National Aircraft Factory at Emmen, all of which acted as risk-sharing partners in the venture.
On 30 January 1972, Air Inter placed an order for ten Mercures, which had to be delivered between 30 October 1973 and 13 December 1975. At this point, the break-even point was anticipated to be around 125-150 aircraft. However, due to the lack of other orders, the production line was shut down on 15 December 1975. Only a total of two prototypes and ten production aircraft were built. One of the prototypes (number 02) was eventually refurbished and purchased by Air Inter to add it to its fleet.
On 29 April 1995, the last two Mercures in service flew their last commercial flights. Throughout their combined cumulative operational lifetimes, the Mercure accumulated a total of 360,000 flight hours, during which 44 million passengers were carried across 440,000 individual flights without any accidents occurring, and a 98% in-service reliability.
Never knew why that plane didn’t become famous
In Airline Manager 2, this plane is a huge success lol.
First I want to say..........Wonderful Video!!
I live in Holland, and when I was a young boy this aircraft came very often to Rotterdam airport till the early/mid 90s.......
Don't know if I'm right.........but I thought this plane made scheduled flights from Paris Orly to Rotterdam that days.....
Sadly enough Air Inter from France was the only airline who operate this rare bird.
As a little boy I always thought this plane was a 737 classic......the sound or better said ''the noise'' was exactly the same.......and also his silhouette during take-off was pretty much the same....
When I was one day at the airport with my father to watch some aircrafts,... this plane was just arrived..........so I was able to see it really close!
Funny enough there was a 737-200 on the platform too,......so from that moment I saw the planes were fairly different.
A man next to me had a conversation with my father.......he told me that the ''Air Inter plane'' was a very rare bird...........a French made Dassault Mercure...
From that moment till today the Mercure is a real mysterious plane with a touch of melancholy to me..
Your comment almost made me tear up
with these animations and narration... this is easily one of the best channels on YT atm! Awesome work Mustard, and please keep em coming!
Loved it. I know about all the airplanes....from the SR-71 to the De Havilland Comet. Learning about little known models and their triumphs or failures is awesome!
So, we can see Mercure is former model of A320.
Nope. AIrbus and Dassault are 2 different companies with different background. Airbus is more the ancestor of Sud Aviation , which have created the Concorde with the British. Then Sud Aviation and other french companies merged to Aerospatiale. And Finally Aerospatiale merged with different european companies to create EADS (now Airbus.à Dassault still produces Military Jet with the famous Rafale, and luxury jet with the Falcons serie.
Actually, it looks strikingly like a Boeing 737-100, which flew some years before the Mercure did.
강하나 - actually the A220-100 / CS100 is what the Mercure -100 should've become. The A220-300 / CS300 is what the -200 would become. The most modern ones have significantly more range (A220-300 can fly transAtlantic) while jetting 100 or 140 passengers economically.
The A320 is just the succeed of Dassault Mercure
Change my mind
Please keep doing these unheard aviation stories! They are great and informative!
I honestly don't know how you get the footage, schematics, and various print documents 50-years after their creation. I have so much respect for the technical and historical issues which created your video. Truly remarkable. Thank you!
Love the vid, thx for the content, been waiting all day and its my bday, thx for the gift.
Happy Birthday.
WoW, your videos are awesome, the plane flying is really well made. I'd say "keep improving your videos", but, with the quality of those right now, that would we almost impossible
you deserve a lot more subscribers than you have atm, your videos are beautifully animated, well spoken and to the point. if i see mustard in my subscription box i know i am in for a good video keep at it!
It's one of the planes that perfectly fit into the "Airplanes that you've seen but you can't name" list! It was a beauty thought ;)
Do an episode on the Avro Arrow!
Ohhh! Another airplane!
I’m a 71yo Veteran and retired Corporate Pilot. I flew a lot of different corporate jets during my 37+ years. The Dassault Falcon 900EX was the best aircraft I ever flew. It did everything great and it was fun to fly.
Transporting it to US itself would have been a challenge with that short range as atlantic ocean is about 2000 to 4000miles wide. Now imagine the number of hops required for transporting it to Australia or Chile.
Oh not really. By the traditionnal atlantic route (France-England-Nothern Ireland-Greenland-Canada) it is doable. Even small monoprops do that route without trouble.
I know it is doable. That is why I mentioned the number of hops it would require.
I was reacting to the "challenge" part of your comment. "Challenge" no, a minor annoyance at most for the US. But a bigger issue for the rest of the world I agree on that
As we learned in Australia when it came time to replace the DC9's and the 727's for the 80s it was the 737 that won out.
Not a challenge at all. Just requires a multileg route and maybe not even that as it would be flying empty, not loaded.
"French jet civil aviation began with the Mercure"
What about the Caravelle ?
exactly, it was merely a stepping stone. Nothing about it was a ''first'' or a ''last''
Pffff caravelle, French was pionner in Civil aviation and aviation in general before the wwII and the jet Era, the caravelle is the rebirth of civil aviation tech.
@@Marcosamaa A rebirth in France, certainly, but only in France as other countries were ahead already...
@@investorbloke yes for France but at That time only USA and the brit (comet) build civil jet plane plus the caravelle introduce some new design feature and even this day very few country build civil jet plane.
@@Marcosamaa Indeed, France put a lot of effort into keeping aviation skills in their industry. The UK may well start making its own jetliners again soon, as well.
Seeing as you do videos on planes which were interesting but didn't quite make the cut, I think you should make a video on the Convair 880, a plane which fits that brief perfectly, being too small and having the rather useless perk of going a few hundredths of a Mach faster than the competition.
These videos are so slick in music, presentation and subjects . You sir are my kind of people .
Dassault wrongly thought that there was a market for a plane optimised for short range operations, but they were wrong, airlines wanted a more versatile plane also able to fly medium range routes.
The Mercure has been ordered and used only by Air Inter for domestic flights in France. I flew several times aboard a Mercure between Paris and Bordeaux, Marseille or Grenoble. It was quite confortable.
The Mercure were used between 1974 and 1995 without a single accident.
The animation is amazing how do you do it
Skillshare
After effects
darude - sandstorm
Most likely Cinema 4D
Another aerial Mustard video? Oh yes please!
mustard is like wendover's cool cousin! you guys had about 2k subs when i first saw your work. it went only uphill from there. great job like always!
Awesome! Thanks for sticking around! We have lots more cool stuff coming
I know a pilot who flew the Mirage III and he told me it was basically a barell of fuel lit at one end and a pilot at the other (also about as efficient in lower altitudes)
Dassault business-jets (Falcons!!!) are heavy-duty proven machines, with technology and docile hand-flying features that make their pilots smile with easy😉. But their planes are expensive for both buying & operating (fuel not included as they usually have low numbers regarding fuel consumption!); this model became a backfire due its very strict operation, a thing that may stuck any possible Operator’s willing of going beyond short-distance routes...
Better stop what I’m doin mustard just uploaded
Wow...another VERY impressive looking video about a plane I am not even sure I had ever heard of prior to this video.
Those videos of the plane flying are EXTREMELY impressive to me. Well done.
I've been binge watching Plane Concept Failures for about 5 hours, it all started at the Flying Boats
*AIRLINE MANAGER*
We know the Mercure. We know.
RC Networks I think it got removed cause I haven’t seen it
Perfect plane in Airline Mogul!
Those effects though... So good.
That “blink” reflection is such a nice touch
The synthwave music is amazing! Looking forward to more of your videos.
Love your stuff keep it up
I'm thinking if they kept it for a little longer, they could use CFM56-7B type of engines instead of the outdated ones, then, when more engines come, they could (probably) switch to those if they wanted.
could try, but they don't really exist anymore.
I flew an Air Inter Mercure from Basel EuroAirport to Paris decades ago. As an airline executive and pilot, the aircraft was very well built and maintained.
It's amazing how France came up with many great ideas, like the twin-jet Caravelle that later benefitted Douglas in its DC-9/MD-80. deHavilland also provided the industry with numerous and valuable lessons from the Comet. The Hawker Trident was the first aircraft to introduce Autoland. All were smart guys who were in fact far ahead of their time.
I think the first scene with blackout is my favorite out of all the movies because its just so cool and mysterious
Do one on the Caravelle
Charles Harwood i second that
Me too. Vastly underrated plane. Concorde set the British-French potential for world domination back by decades. The A320 came 30 years too late.
Such a beautiful looking video!
thanks for the portuguese subtitles. It's help a lot to we brazillians can keep watching this amazing channel
This plane has a 100% perfect safety record, never had a single failure that caused any danger outside of intentional failures for training, so it's one of the few with no accidents!
I'd love to fly this plane, i honestly might place it in 4th on my "favorite planes" list, 2nd on the "planes i probably will be able to fly at some point" list since i don't think i will be flying the sr71 at any point in the future
Since this plane has been retired from comercial use but is still used in short flight comercial airliner training i really want to fly one and it's very much possible i will be able to
Yes. Definitely a marketing failure. I don't think that the specifications warrant a failure; it really is just a regional jet.
I laugh when the 737 fanboys claim "it failed because it can't fly over the oceans." I say big deal, the 737s I flew on NEVER did that. They only flew an average of 250-300 nautical miles because airlines used it the SAME way the Dassault was used: short haul routes with heavy traffic.
This wasn't just a marketing failure, them French clearly thought that their geography applies everywhere, but the reality is that it does NOT. While it is true that the 737 sold like hot cakes, the Mercure could've sold like hot cakes if they didn't engineer it too hard to fly on regional routes. If you imagine history an alternate way, if Dassault didn't do that on their Mercure, then it could be the French 737. I clearly respect their little-heard-of plane, but the moral of the story is clear: don't use your own country's geography everywhere, or your plane is bound to be a huge flop! If they installed WAY bigger tanks, then the Mercure could be the plane I could be using every day I fly to Bristol from Gdańsk (yes, that is the route I fly).
I personally think the fact that it was French made it doomed from the start. This is a plane built to fly short haul routes throughout France. And what did said short haul routes start doing? Dying off, because France realized high speed rail was actually a good idea.
The Sud Aviation Caravelle (282 bulit) (and purchased as a regional jet by United) was French and had a range of 1600 km - suffering the same limitation as the Mercure. The initial BAC 1-11 also had a limited range, but this was extended in later models (244 in total) The Hawker Siddeley Trident (117 in total) had an initial short range but this was extended too.
Over 500 of these aircraft were also in operation competing with the Boeing 737 and the DC9. In many ways there was not really the space for another competitor in the market as well with so many European Aircraft manufacturers. In fact Concorde and the first Airbus A300 were also being developed at the time - and many of the European aircraft manufactures were cooperating and consolidating so it was a much more complex issue even had they managed to create the longer haul version.
But a very interesting video - this is not a criticism but rather to show that there was a lot different aircraft developments going on in Europe at the time and the French government might have stuck with the project had it not been for other pressures and developments as well. Just think, had the funding been pulled from Airbus and sunk into Dassault instead the whole aviation industry would be different today.
Thanks, great comment. Indeed, in the post-WWII European civil aviation market, there was too much competition as there were too many companies that were too small to become a serious competitor for Boeing and Douglas. The Airbus project really was the best possible decision as only in this form European companies were able to cooperate on a reasonable scale and have the capacity to really challenge the Americans.
I'm a simple man. I see a video by Mustard, I like it
I really like this channel, the videos are extremely well made and it talks about aviation, which is a topic I can't find a lot of it on TH-cam. Keep it up!
Every time you mispronounced Dassault - somebody spilled wine in France.
Dasshole 😁
i will find everybody who say dassaulte instead of dassaut
Beautiful graphics and an engaging story. Thank you!
I'm seriously enjoying the balance of technical information, along with Business analysis.
Baade 152! This jet airliner was a complete departure from the traditional configuration and it was designed in East Germany! Right up your alley!
One if these days youll be at 1M subs. Keep turning out those videos!
And keep up the high quality. Id rather be subbed to a low quantity high quality channel than the other way around.
A like before you watch is always a win!
In one of the airline simulators I play, the Mercure is available and easily the best narrowbody you can buy... Assumably you started your airline in Europe.
Seems like I've stumbled upon another gem on TH-cam. Your journey to one million subscribers is going to be fast. Keep it up.
The visuals are amazing, fantastic animation.
Looks strikingly similar to the 737-200
Wonderfully informative and eye-catching video. Can't wait to see what future videos you will make!
I worked on a grounded Mercure during my studies, although it was put aside the school hangar, not protected at all, all system were operatives (except engines, they didnt have the authorisation to start them, and apu too, because of building proximity)
it was a fantastic plane, with good engineering, thought for make maintenance fast and easy, good memories
The graphics on these videos look like they come from a multi million dollar TV company. I don’t get how you do it.
Honey Nut Clusters, I've been saying this for years but a bellyful of Honey Nut Clusters in the morning gives you the feeling that you can achieve anything. All of the people at Google and working for Elon Musk eat Honey Nut Clusters, it gets delivered by pipeline.
@@krashd 😅
4:44 "the 737 evolved into a multitude of variants." With some variants having a vexing capacity to crash by themselves
Still the most successful commercial airplane ever!
I had the honor of being able to go inside of the last preserved mercure on display, it is now on display at the Bourget in Paris but the interior visit I did, is sadly no longer available.
I’ve always loved the look of the Mercure, it’s a very pretty plane with nice proportions
Yeah, the design really was ahead of its time and doesn't even look dated nowadays. in fact, today's small and medium-size airliners don't look much different.
At least this aircraft had a service life
not like the
Shangai Y-10
Love this channel
I don't know why I watch these, but I love em
Damn this videos are just too good, amazing quality, and great content, thank you for them!
I just found this channel.....love the content. Subscribed 🙂
Thank you! :)
Le mercure est tellement beau, et surtout le petit frère du A320
G&T: apprenti pilote C'est marrant il fait aussi très A310 et 737 en apparence. Parfois on pourrait s'y méprendre !😁
zeboss nidhal quand j’étais petit, la première fois que je l’est vu au Bourget j’étais troublé ne sachant pas quel action c’était
ouaip pour un paris-toulon.
I don't speak French, but doesn't that mean something like the Mercure is beautiful, and is the little brother of the a320?
Don't ask them, they won't respond in English.
I recently saw a JT8D that was supposed to be on one of those things at a P&W hangar museum. Was very interested in this.
0:53
Company: *loses millions of money
Mustard: *happy jazz music*
Awesome video. Only thing is that Dassault is pronounced “dass-o”
4:25. Mustard, I generally find your videos informative. But the talking points regarding the 737’s family of stretches through the classic, NG, and MAX are irrelevant to the demise of the Mercure. The fact is only the 737-200/ADV were in production at the time of the Mercure’s entry into service. The 737-300/400/500 were designed years later after the Mercure was long out of production. There were no high bypass engines available to either aircraft at the time. And +1,000 NM routes were majority 727s, DC-8s, and widebodies during the 1970s. Not 737-200s or DC-9-30s, like the video would leave us to believe. By the time the 737s were stretched with CFMs and transcon range, the Mercure hadn’t been built for 20 years.
Antonio Luciano all valid points. Very true.
Also, the DC-9 outsold the 737-200 during the late 60s. Thus it was the bigger hurdle (not only for Mercure, but Caravelle too). So the focus on the 737 was indeed misguided, from a market perspective. They just looked alike.
Antonio Luciano - You completely missed the point of how convertible the 737 was compared to the Mercure - in addition to its longer range, which enabled it to remain fresh and relevant to this day. The Mercure was obviously not being compared with versions of the 737 that hadn’t yet been devised. Showing the entire 737 family was only for reference.
this video is great and all, but i mostly can't stop drooling over the animations like at 3:42. they look AMAZING!
Days when either Mustard or LEMMiNO upload is a pretty good day.
The cockpit looks a lot like the Airbus cockpit... are the two linked in any way?
Harry Grindell
I think Airbus/EADS bought dassault a couple of years later.
They probably have a similar design philosophy; Airbus is headed by French aerospace manufacturers, merged with other European firms. Dassault is still in the business of building military and private jets.
No Dassault is not a part of Airbus/EADS and has never been. They still produce Business Jets and Figher Jets and are a direct Competitor of Airbus in that market.
Maybe some eningeers have moved on from Dassault to Airbus, tough, even though their offices and plants are in quite different parts of France to my knowledge.
airbus do have 10% of dassault's share tho. probably from an earlier merger between french firms that corporated into the airbus.
Wikipedia says so but I am not sure that is still correct. They had shares in dasault, I read even 23% but sold it as far as I heard.
The reason for that was not a takeover but they inherited it from Aerospatiale who held that shares for the french government.
It may have been possible to merge dassault and airbus but it did not happen, I dont really know anything more about this.
Sometimes, great ideas turn into the worst failures
I thought I knew a few things about aviation but I stand corrected! I had never heard of a Dassault Mercure until this video. Thanks for the education.
I just love that pseudonym, Dassault. It's just a great name. You should also make a video on the Breda 88, one of the most legendary military failures. (I don't know if you'd be willing to make a video on a piston plane though. But, I know you like aeronautical failures, so that's something!)
It's not a pseudonym. It was named after the founder, Marcel Dassault.