A Commercial Failure: The Dassault Mercure Story

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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[hyenafur]

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.

[uss_]

You can fly the Mercure anywhere you want.
As long as its from France.

[mkd]

Anyone who have played Airline Manager will recognise this plane as the best and most economical short range aircraft

[hjfischer]

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!

[davelowe]

The lesson? What your customers want is more important than the elegance of your technical solution.

[cctmsp]

"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.

[Trapasak]

Wow. The graphics is top notch! The content too but the graphics....O.o

[bloodaxe]

7:45 it looks like the plane has winked at me. Showing of its magnificence 😂

[HappyHands.]

I remember when Piedmont Airlines received their first 737-300 . the new engines were a true game changer. it was an awesome plane.

[oopsididitagainbut]

Everyone playing Airline Manager knows this as the best starter plane.

[shobin]

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.

[empirestate]

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.

[AFlyingCapybara]

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!

[bigmoneygreen]

One year from now:

This video is made possible by Boeing. Get your own Beoing 747 today!

[hamavocado]

The mercure would've been amazing to use in SEA considering that it's a relatively small region but very packed with cities.

[ecognitio]

The quality of your videos are amazing!

[uss_]

Mustard: Another case of a known Military Jet Manufacturer bumbling into Airliners.

[chancerNW]

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.

[jayvanasten]

First I want to Video!!
I live in Holland, and when I was a young boy this aircraft came very often to Rotterdam airport till the early/mid
Don't know if I'm I thought this plane made scheduled flights from Paris Orly to Rotterdam that
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 sound or better said ''the noise'' was exactly the 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 I was able to see it really close!
Funny enough there was a 737-200 on the platform from that moment I saw the planes were fairly different.
A man next to me had a conversation with my told me that the ''Air Inter plane'' was a very rare French made Dassault Mercure...
From that moment till today the Mercure is a real mysterious plane with a touch of melancholy to me..

[iceair]

Please continue with the airplane videos. You are doing such a wonderful job making aviation history come alive! I can't thank you enough!