Dassault Mercure

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 competitor 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, primarily the decision to design the Mercure with a service-limiting lack of range in comparison to rival aircraft (less than half the range of the contemporary Boeing 737-200). 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.