So, this is a review of two parts.
First, to the contents. It's a labour of love for Alexis Rocher, that much is clear. Here's the contents page.
Chapter 1 - Designing the Super Mirage
- From the ACF to the Super Mirage 4000 . 7
- Close-up - Bruno Revellin Falcoz,
- from the drawing board to the vice-chairmanship . 10
- ACF, the missing link . 13
- The F-15 Eagle for France ? 17
- The M53 engine, towards Mach 2.5 19
- Dassault in 1979 . 24
- The Super Mirage 4000 formula . 26
- The technical side 28
- Electrical flight controls . 28
- In a pavilion 30
- The Mirage 4000 must be built 31
- Remove the pilot from the fuselage . 33
- More range 34
- The ducks are coming 35
- Change of dimension 36
- The Assembly 39
- Problems with the coachman . 40
- The Mirage 4000 replacing the Mirage IV ? . 43
Chapter 2 - Flight tests, 1979 to 1983
- Preparing the aircraft . 49
- The maiden flight 51
- Close-up - Jean-Marie Saget, a passion for flying . 52
- 9 march 1979, the thrill of the first flight . 57
- Close-up - Jacques Desmazures, Director of flight tests . 59
- The first tests . 60
- Louis Robert : « Never seen such a thing ! » 63
- First Bourget . 64
- Presentation to Irak . 66
- Vertical «8» at Farnborough 67
- With missiles . 69
- A pre-series of Mirage 4000 for France ? 70
- The year 1982 . 73
- Last Bourget ? 75
Chapter 3 - Flight tests, 1985 to 1988
- The return of the Mirage 4000 . 81
- The Tornado 82
- Change of team . 85
- Close-up - Louis Éon, test pilot . 86
- Mirage 4000 and Rafale . 89
- Sales prospecting resumes 94
- The demonstration in Nice . 96
- Mirage 4000 / AS.50, a visionary couple 99
- No chance with Saudi Arabia ! 100
- A bomb at Le Bourget ! 105
- The aircraft of every fighter pilot’s dreams 108
- Last flight . 106
Chapter 4 - The renovation project .
- Small and large Mirage 4000 113
- The Mirage 4000 in the world of scale models . 121
Appendices
- Specifications of the Super Mirage 4000 . 126
- When the CIA takes an interest in the Mirage 4000 127
- The aeronautical cooperation project between the Arab Organisation for Industrialisation (AOI) and France 130
- Saudi Arabia’s participation in the development and industrialisation of the Super Mirage 4000 133
- Chronology of the Super Mirage 4000 programme 137
- Bibliography 143
- Index . 144
It is based on his 25 years of research into the Mirage 4000 from 1999. Some of that was previously published in Le Fana de L'aviation articles in 2004 and 2019. This book is based on the earlier articles, but expanded and updated a lot and translated to English.
There's a lot of first hand accounts from key people from the program. Its very interesting to read. Its going to be pretty much indispensible if you like the Mirage 4000.
So having said all that, it's not perfect. The second part to the review.
The PDF version I purchased appears to be a faithful reproduction of the printed book. The layout isn't terrible, but the page size is quite small and it looks feels more like a self-published book, which it kind of is. Not keen on the use of blue text for captions and callout sections.
I feel its fine for what I paid for it, but it leaves me wanting a little more. The La Fana articles are much nicer layout than this book, which is a shame. I'd love to see the same contents in a larger format page with more professional layout.
If only Morton's could have published it under their bookazine or book lines,
@newsdeskdan