Comments by "" (@RedXlV) on "French Swingers; The Dassault Mirage G" video.

  1. Kind of too bad that Dassault didn't design a "Mirage G1" with a single Atar 9K as the cheaper option. But then again, "variable geometry wings" and "cheaper" would've run at cross purposes, so I suppose he made the right decision with the F1 even if it would've looked a lot cooler with swing wings.
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  2. IIRC, the TF30 worked pretty well in the F-111. Seeing as the Mirage F2 was meant to be primarily a low-level ground attack aircraft, the TF30 probably would've served it well enough. The Mirage G, on the other hand, was meant to be a fighter, and thus could very well have encountered the TF30's lovely tendency toward compressor stalls at high angles of attack.
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  3. While it was faster than any Harrier-derived aircraft would ever achieve, the Mirage IIIV was a fundamentally flawed concept. Those eight lift jets it needed to take off vertically meant it carried a literal ton of dead weight around once it transitioned to horizontal flight. Those lift jets were almost 10% of the Mirage IIIV's total weight, but were completely useless except on takeoff and landing. The internal volume they took up also meant it could carry much less fuel than a CTOL fighter of the same size, a problem compounded by the fact that vertical takeoff will expend more fuel than conventional takeoff to lift any given amount of weight, since you're brute-forcing your way into the air rather than having aerodynamic lift help you.
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