French Mirage NG

Although not intended purely as a research aircraft, the French Dassault Mirage 3NG (Nouvelle Generation) was a greatly modified Mirage IIIE single-engine jet fighter that was used to demonstrate the improved air combat performance advantages made possible using relaxed static stability and fly-by-wire. One prototype was built by Dassault; modifications included destabilizing canards, extended wing root lead­ing edges, an analog-computer-controlled fly-by-wire flight control sys­tem (based on that used in the production Mirage 2000 fighter), and the improved Atar 9K-50 engine. The Mirage 3NG first flew in December 1982, demonstrating significant performance improvements over the standard operational Mirage IIIE. These were claimed to include a 20-25-percent reduction in takeoff distance, a 40-percent improvement in time to reach combat altitude, a nearly 10,000-foot increase in super­sonic ceiling, and similarly impressive gains in acceleration, instanta­neous turn rate, and combat air patrol time.