The Dassault Mirage F2 was a prototype French multirole fighter from the 1960s with impressive performance.

Gallery:

Features:

• Blueprint recreation of the real aircraft
• Fairly realistic performance
• Custom weapons (R.550 Magic, AS-30, PHIMAT, DEFA 30mm)
• Animated spoilers and leading edge slats
• Custom landing gear with nose wheel steering
• Realistic afterburner
• Custom airbrake
• Custom canopy view
• Rear seat view

Nonstandard Controls:

• AG 1 Drogue Chute
• AG 2 Activate Nose Wheel Steering, then Yaw to use
• AG 3 Jettison Belly Tank
• AG 8 Lights
• VTOL for Flaps
• Trim for trim

Notes:

• Fly with mouse as joystick
• Don’t mirror it
• The real prototype was never fitted with weapons, but I’ve included them for fun. Consider this to be a prototype that got further along in development. If you want a truly authentic experience, delete them.
• Keep in mind that the R.550 Magic is not a modern missile, don’t expect every launch to hit.
• The AS-30 was designed to be used against bridges and bunkers, it’s a bit overkill for tanks and underkill for ships.
• The PHIMAT countermeasure pod deploys flares and chaff, something the aircraft lacks by default, to give it a fighting chance against more modern jets.
• I think this is the first recreation of this aircraft for Simpleplanes, which is exciting.
• Information on the F2 was disappointingly scarce; I recreated it as faithfully as possible but had to fill in with info from the F1 where needed.
• The Mirage F2 is beautiful, as are all Dassault birds. I really enjoyed making it.

Background:

Dassault’s Mirage F2 began development in the early 1960s as a low-level penetrating aircraft capable of supersonic speeds. Developed alongside it was an interceptor variant, dubbed the F3, and a scaled down multirole version; the F1. It also served as the basis for the Mirage G swing-wing aircraft.

The F2 featured conventional wings, as opposed to the delta wing usually associated with the Mirage series. This gave it a lower landing speed and takeoff distance. Both of these were of importance when planning for a nuclear war scenario where conventional airfields would all be destroyed. The aircraft was powered by a derivative of the powerful Pratt & Whitney TF30, outputting an impressive 20,000 lbf of thrust with afterburner and giving the aircraft a top speed of over Mach 2. One prototype was constructed and first flew in 1966.

Although testing was successful, development shifted to the more modern, variable-geometry Mirage G. Despite its impressive performance, the Mirage G, too, would be cancelled due to high costs. However, the scaled-down Mirage F1 would go on to be produced in large numbers and was hugely successful, seeing export to a wide variety of countries. Information gained from the F2 was later used on the Mirage 2000, and data from the Mirage G assisted a number of U.S. aircraft manufacturers. The sole Mirage F2 survives today, outside the Direction Générale De L'armement Technical Aeronautics in Toulouse.