News from Dassault

Dassault unveils full-scale cabin mockup for Falcon 10X

Dassault Aviation displayed a full-scale cabin mockup for the new Falcon 10X ultra-long-range twinjet at the NBAA-BACE convention in Las Vegas and after the show, the mockup remained in the US for individual customer tours.

Detailed design for the 7,500 nm, Mach 0.925 jet will be completed before year-end, with parts production beginning in 2022. Many components and structures will come from Dassault’s new Factory 4.0 smart manufacturing facility in Seclin, France. A redesigned building at Dassault’s plant in Biarritz will manufacturer the advanced all-composite wing.

Rolls-Royce meanwhile is developing the latest and most powerful variant of its ultra-efficient Pearl engine series to power the new aircraft. The modules for the first Pearl 10X test engines are currently being assembled at Rolls-Royce’s center of excellence for business aviation engines in Dahlewitz near Berlin, Germany. The first engine test run is scheduled for next year. The Pearl 10X will be rated at more than 18,000 pounds of thrust and be 100% SAF capable.

Dassault Aviation’s new extra widebody Falcon 6X continues to march through key certification milestones one after another. The first flight of the Falcon 6X was on 10 March of this year. Three test aircraft are now flying. Pratt & Whitney Canada is in the final stages of the certification process for the 6X’s PW812D engine, with all required certification testing complete. Final reviews are currently underway with Transport Canada, and certification is expected to follow shortly.

Each test aircraft is currently flying two to three times a week, several hours per flight. Test points beyond Mmo and Vmo have been completed and every aspect of flight testing, from system development, aircraft performance and envelope expansion, is proceeding flawlessly.

First announced in 2018, the Falcon 6X will create a new benchmark in the long-range, large aircraft segment. At the time, the 6X had the largest cabin cross section in business aviation, 6 feet 6 inches (1.98 m) tall and 8 feet, 6 inches (2.58 m) wide. It is now surpassed only by Dassault’s own ultra-long-range Falcon 10X, which will have the largest cabin of any purpose-built business jet.

The 6X has end-of-mission approach speeds as low 109 knots and can routinely fly out of small airports with runways of 4,000 feet or less. The aircraft has the ‘most advanced digital flight control system in the industry’, with digital control not only of primary flight controls such as ailerons, elevators and rudder but also, for the first time, secondary flight controls like flaps, flaperons, and nose wheel steering. In addition to ultra-low noise levels, the 6X will feature a cabin altitude as low as 3,900 feet at a cruise level of 41,000 feet.