The Billion Dollar Jet That Is Useless To Fly

Video Description

Imagine building a jet in the 1970s that was meant to kill the Boeing 737. Faster, quieter, wider inside, packed with military grade tech so advanced it made American jets look primitive. Experts predicted 1,500 sales. They sold twelve. So how does the better airplane lose that badly. Because the Mercure didn’t fail in the wind tunnel, it failed on a map. France designed it around short domestic hops, cut the fuel capacity to “optimize” it, and accidentally created a jet that could barely escape its own borders. When airlines outside France saw the range chart, the conversation ended. This is the story of Dassault’s Mercure, the world’s best failure, the aircraft that flew brilliantly for one airline inside one country, and the simple geographic mistake that turned a 737 killer into a museum piece.