Rocher, Alexis Super Mirage 4000. The Super Mirage 4000 as told by its engineers and pilots

The Super Mirage 4000 was developed on the personal initiative of Marcel Dassault and is the last European fighter aircraft to be financed by the manufacturer's own funds. After summarising several years of interviews with the main protagonists of the programme, Alexis Rocher takes the reader to the heart of the technological choices made in the development of the most powerful aircraft of its time. The "Super Mirage 4000" was initially promoted as a possible successor to the Mirage IV nuclear bomber, then offered for export as a very powerful fighter-bomber capable of changing the geostrategic balance in the Middle East. The author takes us through the emotions of the first flight and the presentations at trade fairs and to foreign delegations, the disagreements at the highest levels of industry and politics, the dashed hopes of export success and finally the discreet efforts of those who made it possible for it to rest in good condition today in the "Musée de l'Air" at Le Bourget. This is the first book ever published on this exceptional aircraft, without which the Rafale would not have become a globally recognised technical and commercial success today. The book is richly illustrated with often unpublished photographs, some of which come from the personal collections of the people involved in the programme, and provides a better understanding of the French aviation landscape in the 1980s.