The saga of the Mystere/Falcon.

From the first Falcon 20 to the latest supersonic projects, a tenacious adventure spanning 40 years.

The man with the round glasses and thin moustache said nothing. For the time being, Marcel Dassault was listening to his closest advisors, all of whom were well aware of what many in the company referred to as the "whim" of the boss -- to build an 8-12 passenger twinjet for executive transport and liaison service flying at close to Mach speed. But was the time ripe?

It was 1960. Military aircraft business was brisk. The French Air Force had just placed an order for 95 Mirage IIICs, and the Navy had ordered an initial batch of 50 Etandard IVM/Ps. Meanwhile, the recent election of General de Gaulle to the French presidency had accelerated development of the nuclear-armed Mirage IV.A. General Aeronautique Marcel Dassault (as the company was then known) had sufficient work to keep the production lines running for years. Why diversify? Especially at a time when export sales were still a secondary consideration.

Don't argue with the boss. But the "boss" refused to be dissuaded. This was hardly surprising. Did no-one remember that his first aircraft (in 1928) was a commercial model, the little three-engine mail carrier, MB-60? Had they forgotten the superb MB-220, the French equivalent of the Douglas DC-3? Finally, had it not been the Flamant twin-engine transport family which had enabled the company to restart the production lines after the war?

In the mind of Marcel Dassault, the French aviation pioneer, civil and military cultures were not separate: the adventure involved the company as a whole. So there was nothing to be done but to accept it and start development of the aircraft he dreamed about.

As it happened, there was an opportunity to do so while limiting the financial risk -- since 20 May 1959, a new design had been in flight test at Bordeaux, the MD-415 Communaute. This eight-passenger twin-turboprop design, powered by 1,000hp Turbomeca Bastan engines, was showing astonishing performance. In the hands of Paul Boudier, it had come close to 270kt, and seemed to have the potential for enhanced variants offering still better performance. With no immediate prospects on the regional transport market, it could have been transformed into an outstanding business aircraft. But Marcel Dassault would have none of it: "We have to aim higher, faster, further. The future belongs to the jet."

Message received. At Bordeaux-Merignac, the message was received loud and clear. In the civil aircraft design department a high-powered team got down to work under the leadership of technical director Paul Deplante, along with Paul Chassagne and Rene Lemaire. They started dusting off the Mediterranee, a twinjet project dating back to 1954 and initially intended to provide a successor to the MD-315 Flamant. The project had been shelved at the time for lack of a sufficiently reliable and economical small jet engine. Nonetheless, in many ways it was a futuristic and ambitious project. It benefited from the experience gained on the Ouragan and Mystere fighters -- swept wing, pressurised cabin and control surfaces featuring irreversible servo controls. The engines were mounted in nacelles under the wing.

Marathon phone call. In autumn 1961, the Bordeaux team unveiled a new preliminary project for a twinjet derived from the Mediterrannee III. This was followed by a memorable telephone conversation between Marcel Dassault and Paul Chassagne, reported by pilot-historian Jacques Noetinger, based on the recollections of Bernard Waquet. The latter recalls that in the course of an interminable phone call, Dassault and Chassagne redefined the machine on the basis of details gleaned from the aircraft's few competitors, to ensure that it would out-perform the North American Sabreliner and Lockheed JetStar. The conversation was along the lines of: "What is the height of the step on the JetStar?" - "Six inches, Sir." - "Right, we'll make ours four ..."

For 45 minutes, the two men remodelled the design, determining the wing surface area, sweepback angle, cabin dimensions ... even the width of the seats. The following day, Paul Chassagne was able to present to his team the first drawing of the Mystere 20.

A few days later, in December 1961, Marcel Dassault gave the green light to build a prototype. The whim had become a fixation; the adventure could begin ...

Birth of the Falcon 20

Deplante's team needed just a few weeks to finalise the project, based on two Pratt & Whitney JT-12A engines (3,300lb thrust) mounted in nacelles at the rear of the fuselage, Caravelle-style. Even before it had left the drawing board, the Mystere 20 already had that elegant look that was to become the hallmark of the Falcon family. However, a number of doubting Thomases had still to be convinced.

Back at company headquarters in Saint-Cloud, many thought the undertaking was reckless. How could the company make money on a project funded out of its own resources? There was a certain ambiguity about the Mystere 20, which was -- officially, at least -- targeted at civil and military customers. There were hopes that the French Air Force and Navy would order the aircraft to replace their ageing C-47 Dakotas and Sud Ouest SO-30.Ps for liaison service. The business aviation market was still just getting off the ground -- particularly in Europe, where few companies saw the need to buy aircraft whose viability had still to be proven. Of course, there was the US market -- without a breakthrough there, the programme had no chance of becoming viable. The competition, however, was strong. At times, even Marcel Dassault seemed to hesitate: "Why should they buy our aircraft when they have their own?"

However, within the marketing division, the programme had found a key supporter, Serge Dassault, who dreamed of penetrating the US market. In the military aviation sector, his chances were slim, but a commercial programme was different.

Feverish activity. Far from the soul-searching at Paris headquarters, activity at the Merignac factory was at fever-pitch. Construction of the first aircraft was launched in February 1962, only two months after the programme go-ahead. Industrial alliances had also been formed. State-owned Sud-Aviation had been invited to participate in construction of the fuselage and tail units and to give financial backing to marketing efforts in the USA.

Finally, things began looking up for the French aircraft. Bernard Waquet (who had already worked with Serge Dassault to seal the Australian Mirage III.0 contract) left for the USA, where he confirmed that Pan American was looking to acquire bizjets with a view to diversifying its activities into business aviation. However, the models proposed by the US manufacturers did not meet the company's requirements. The Learjet was too small, and the aircraft proposed by Lockheed and North American were not deemed suitable.

Pan Am chairman Juan Trippe had no hesitation in turning to Europe to find an aircraft for his new Business Jets division. Contacts were made with de Havilland in the UK, which proposed a small twinjet, the DH-125 (the future HS-125). However, in the absence of an engine offering sufficient performance, negotiations had stalled.

From this time onwards, Waquet had only one goal: sell the Mystere 20 to Pan Am. For months, he laid siege to the company, scrupulously noting down all the requirements of this dream customer. Back in France, he pushed for modifications to the prototype, still in construction. The wing was enlarged and the range extended to over 1,000nm.

Mystere 20s for Pan Am

After much argument and persuasion, the day finally arrived on 4 May 1963 when a delegation from Pan Am arrived in Merignac led by the legendary Charles Lindbergh, acting as technical advisor to the company. The prototype was practically finished by then. At the end of his visit, the hero of transatlantic flight is reported to have called Juan Trippe and pronounced the famous phrase: "I got your bird."

Lindbergh was so confident that he left immediately for the USA without waiting for the aircraft to make its first flight that afternoon. Flown by Rene Bigand and flight engineer Jean Dillaire, the aircraft was airborne for 65 minutes.

On 6 June 1963, General de Gaulle inaugurated the 25th Paris Air Show at Le Bourget. Large crowds swarmed around the Dassault display, in which the Mystere 20 prototype (F-WLKB) occupied a prominent position. The aircraft stood out in its white and tricolour livery.

Observers were impressed by this sleek, elegant machine, flown by Jean-Marie Saget. The future of the programme, however, was being played out behind the scenes. Waquet was fighting hard, both in Paris and New York, to hammer out the technical and financial clauses of a future contract. Marcel Dassault gave him his full backing.

Contract signed. Finally, on 2 August 1963, less than three months after Lindbergh's visit to Merignac, the contract was signed in Pan Am's Paris office in the presence of Serge Dassault. The deal, worth a staggering $160 million, covered firm orders for 40 aircraft, with options for a further 120. The contract also gave Pan Am temporary exclusive sales rights for the Mystere 20 in the USA, subsequently extended to Canada (1966), then Latin America (1968). The first aircraft was to be delivered for completion no later than spring 1965.

For the Merignac design team, however, the deal was accompanied by draconian technical requirements. The JT-12A-8 engines were to be replaced by more powerful General Electric CF700-2B turbofans (4,115lb) offering reduced fuel consumption (0.88kg/kg/h). The nacelles had to be completely redesigned. The wingspan was extended from 44ft 4in to 55ft 5in, with a significant increase in wing surface area. Fuel capacity was increased to 4,770 litres, giving 25% more range (1,400nm). The cabin was stretched by 24in, and the overall length increased from 51ft 6in to 56ft 3in. Various French-made equipment was replaced with components of US design, and the landing gear was equipped with twin wheels. On the French side, some options gave rise to heated debate (air intakes) and some further improvements were integrated (drooping leading edge slats). At the end of the day, the sum total of all these changes boosted the maximum takeoff weight from 21,100lb to 24,400lb.