Editing Dassault Mirage III (section)

====Milan====
In 1968, Dassault, in cooperation with the Swiss, began work on a Mirage update known as the '''Milan''' ("[[Kite (bird)|Kite]]"). The main feature of the ''Milan'' was a pair of pop-out foreplanes in the nose, which were referred to as "''moustaches''". The moustaches were intended to provide better take-off performance and low-speed control for the attack role. The three initial prototypes were converted from existing Mirage fighters; one of these prototypes was nicknamed "[[Asterix]]", after the internationally popular French cartoon character, a tough little Gallic warrior with a huge moustache.<ref name = "prof 178">Brindley 1971, p. 178.</ref>

A fully equipped prototype rebuilt from a ''Mirage IIIR'' flew in May 1970, and was powered by the uprated {{convert|70.6|kN|lbf|abbr=on}} afterburning thrust [[SNECMA Atar 09K-50]] engine, following the evaluation of an earlier model of this new series on the one-off ''Mirage IIIC2''. The Milan also had updated avionics, including a laser designator and rangefinder in the nose. A second fully equipped prototype was produced for Swiss evaluation as the ''Milan S''. The canards did provide significant handling benefits, but they had drawbacks. They blocked the pilot's forward view to an extent, and set up turbulence in the engine intakes. The Milan concept was abandoned in 1972, while work continued on achieving the same goals with canards.{{Citation needed|date=January 2013}}