That makes me wonder how the Fairey Delta could have been developed.
Had the RAF bought 160 Fairey Delta 2 powered by Avon engines instead of 160 Hunter FGA Mk 9/FR 10s could we have had a Spey powered Fairey Delta 3 in the second half of the 1960s, possibly built for the RAF instead of the Harrier and Jaguar? Could that have been followed by the Fairey Delta 4 with FBW and an RB.199 engine?
Let's consider that interesting bird, the Mirage III-NG, flown in December 1982. It is really the ultimate evolution of the Mirage III. It is a derivative of the Mirage 50 (1979).
http://www.caea.info/fr/?option=com...lt-mirage-iii-ng-50-m&catid=37:avio-de-combat
The Mirage III-NG had
- A Mirage V / Mirage 50 airframe, which was lighter with more fuel than the early Mirage III C/E
- Mirage 2000 fly-by-wire, except it was less efficient since the old airframe was not unstable enough (the 2000 had FBW from the craddle, it was born unstable)
- Mirage F1 and Super Etendard advanced avionics, air-to-air and air-to-ground (something the Jaguar never had)
- A Mirage F1 Atar 9K50 with 7200 kgp, the most powerful ATAR ever
- and on top of that, the Kfir canards with some LERX added to the delta wing.
In a nutshell, a Mirage III airframe with all the goodies developped for the Mirage V, Jaguar, F1, Super Etendard, Kfir, and Mirage 2000 !
Unfortunately no market was found for it.
now lets imagine that France had been poorer (to, say, Chili GDP level, between 1960 and 1990) and thus unable to fund a successor to the Mirage III until the Rafale.
Then the Mirage III airframe could have handled, by itself, the jobs of the Mirage F1, Jaguar, and part of the Mirage 2000. Plus a touch of the Super Etendard: no carrier capable, but it could loft a pair of Exocets underwing.
As for better engine, bar the 9K50, the Kfir got a J79, Avon was tested on the IIIO.
Since the Mirage III-T swallowed an entire TF-30 (1240 mm diameter), the smaller M53 (1055 mm) could have very well fitted into a Mirage III - although it was never done.
The Mirage F1 fuselage was pretty close from a Mirage V.