Dassault Mercure

Dassault Aviation · France · first flew 1971 · airliner

The Dassault Mercure is a French twin-engined narrow-body jet airliner built for short-haul routes. It was Dassault's first venture into the commercial airliner market.

Recognition (WEFT)

W — Wings	Low-mounted, swept
E — Engines	2 × turbofan, wing-mounted
F — Fuselage	Narrow-body twin-jet airliner with a Pratt & Whitney JT8D turbofan on a deep pylon under each wing
T — Tail	Conventional

WEFT is AircraftIQ's four-point recognition method — how it works.

Spot it by:

Narrow-body twin-jet airliner with a Pratt & Whitney JT8D turbofan on a deep pylon under each wing
Seating up to 162 passengers in an all-economy layout, more than a Boeing 737-200 of its day
Only 12 were built (two prototypes and ten production aircraft); Air Inter was the only airline customer

Look for a low swept wing with two engines hung on deep underwing pylons, and a conventional tail on a narrow-body fuselage.

Specifications

The Dassault Mercure has a length of 34.84 m (114 ft).
It has a wingspan of 30.55 m (100 ft).
Its maximum speed is 1041 km/h (647 mph).
Typical crew: 3.

Figures are for the representative variant described above; marks differ. See how AircraftIQ sources figures.

History

The prototype made its first flight on 28 May 1971 from Merignac, and the type entered service with Air Inter on 4 June 1974. Its short range limited sales.

Variants

Only the Mercure 100 was built. A Mercure 200 with CFM56 engines and a new wing was proposed but never built.

Where you'll see it

Only Air Inter bought the aircraft: twelve were built, two prototypes and ten production machines. The last two flew their final commercial flights on 29 April 1995.

Related aircraft

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