Dassault Mercure CAD Project
Dassault Mercure — 3D CAD Restoration Project
What It Is
This project is a high-fidelity 3D CAD reconstruction of the Dassault Mercure 100, a short-range French airliner that has become one of the rarest commercial aircraft in aviation history. The model is built from scratch using archival drawings, scattered technical references, and photographic measurement techniques.
The goal is simple:
- To digitally preserve an aircraft whose physical presence has nearly vanished.
- This CAD is intended for aviation enthusiasts, model builders, flight-sim modders, engineers, and anyone who wants to explore the geometry of an uncommon airliner that disappeared far too quickly.
The History Behind the Mercure
The Dassault Mercure 100 was Dassault’s bold attempt to break into the commercial jetliner market during the 1970s. It entered a world dominated by the Boeing 737 and the Douglas DC-9—tough competitors even for military aviation legends like Dassault.
Despite its advanced aerodynamics and impressive handling, the Mercure suffered from a fatal flaw:
- it was too specialized.
- It excelled at short-haul, high-frequency European routes with superb runway performance and sleek, Mirage-inspired lines, but its limited range made it economically uncompetitive for airlines outside a very narrow operational niche.
- Only 11 aircraft were ever built.
- All operated by a single airline.
- All eventually retired with barely any survivors preserved.
Today, the Mercure is almost a forgotten chapter of aviation—a near-mythical airliner overshadowed by the titans it once tried to challenge.
Why I Made This Project
Some aircraft disappear quietly. No restoration programs. No preserved cockpits. No passionate communities keeping them alive. The Mercure is one of them.
I built this model because I want the Mercure’s story to remain accessible—not just as text in a book or a blurry photograph, but as an object you can inspect, rotate, measure, and understand.
As an engineer and aviation enthusiast, I’ve always believed that aircraft deserve a second life, even if only in digital form. If we can’t see the Mercure fly anymore, at least we can preserve its shape, its design choices, and the engineering philosophy behind it. This project exists because I wanted to keep that history from fading.
Why It’s Cool
The Mercure 100 represents something truly rare:
- A commercial jet built with fighter-jet DNA.
- Its aerodynamics came from a company famous for the Mirage. Its design philosophy leaned toward agility instead of pure economics. Its proportions and wing geometry make it stand out from any other airliner of its era.
- Recreating it in CAD reveals details that are easy to miss in old photographs — the wing sweep, the elegant nose profile, the unique proportions shaped by Dassault’s military lineage.
- It is a blend of commercial practicality and fighter-jet aesthetics that we simply don’t see anymore.
Preserving that in 3D form isn’t just cool — it’s a way of keeping alive a forgotten experiment in aviation history.
See Also:
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