Dassault Mirage IIIV

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The Dassault Mirage IIIV, also spelled Mirage III V, is a French vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) prototype fighter aircraft of the mid-1960s developed and produced by Dassault Aviation. The Mirage IIIV was a VTOL derivative of an existing conventional fighter, the Dassault Mirage III; the principal difference between the two types was the addition of eight small vertical lift jets which straddled the main engine. These lift jets would have been used during vertical takeoffs and landings, but would have been inactive during horizontal flight. The Mirage IIIV had come about as a response to the issuing of a NATO specification, NATO Basic Military Requirement 3 (NBMR-3), which sought a supersonic-capable VTOL strike fighter. The Mirage IIIV was a competitor with Hawker Siddeley's P.1154 VTOL fighter, a cousin of the Hawker Siddeley Harrier. Both aircraft competed to be selected to meet the NBMR-3 requirement. While the Mirage IIIV is commonly viewed as being more politically palatable...

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