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Dassault has launched its first all-new business jet in over a decade in announcing plans to build the US$45 million Falcon 5X, a large-cabin 16 passenger, 5,200nm range competitor to the Gulfstream 450 and Bombardier Global 5000.
The Falcon 5X features a wider fuselage cross-section than any previous Falconjet, new Safran Snecma Silvercrest turbofans, a new wing and a new digital flight control system. Dassault says it will fly 5,200nm at Mach 0.80, or 4,750nm at Mach 0.80, and burn up to a third less fuel than its older competitors. The largest Falconjet yet announced, the 5X could also form the basis of a larger, longer-ranging Falcon in the future.
Dassault says the 5X’s digital flight control system: “integrates all moving control surfaces for the first time, including an additional control surface called a ‘flaperon’, that allows steep approaches at slow and safe speeds. It also integrates nose wheel steering for safer runway handling in strong crosswind conditions and on wet or slick runways.”
Other features include an advanced Elbit Systems HUD, a new generation development of Dassault’s EASy digital cockpit (supplied by Honeywell) and Snecma’s ForeVision health monitoring system for the engines that “can forecast when maintenance will be required several flights or even hundreds of flight hours in advance, making scheduling easier and ensuring availability of the aircraft when it is needed”.
Announced in Las Vegas at the National Business Aviation Association’s annual convention, Dassault says the 5X is expected to make its first flight in the first quarter of 2015. Certification is planned for late 2016. Dassault says 5X airframe structures are already in production.
