Behind the launch of the Dassault Falcon 6X

The story of 2020 is complicated, but I will try and frame it in a way that’s understandable for everyone. The first experience we had with COVID was to adapt to a new way of working. At first, we had to interrupt production for around a week, and then we defined social distancing barriers to protect employees, which was our priority. To be very clear with you, we used to offer remote working but only with a limited number of people. And what we had to do to adapt to this new situation was to develop it from being 400–500 people working that way to more than 4,000 people. The business priorities were to continue serving the customer in terms of support.

“Human beings like contact, meaning that there are things that you will do remotely, but there are things that you need to do face-to-face”

Falcon 6X specs

Passengers: 16
Windows: 30
Speed: Mach 0.90
Range: 5,500nm
Engine: Pratt & Whitney PW812D
Maximum certificated altitude: 51,000ft
Length: 25.68m
Height: 7.47m
Wing span: 25.94m
Cabin length: 12.3m
Max headroom: 1.98m
Max take-off weight: 35,135kg

What are the significant advantages of business jets?

Business aviation is all about saving time. And when you take something good, why would you go back? Why do you save time? First of all, because you can take off when you want, you don’t have to queue to get to a desk or wait for your ticket. You take off from the closest airport to you and land at the nearest airport to your destination. When you take an airliner, of course, you sometimes have to make stopovers because there is no direct way to get to the place you want to go. You’re losing time during those connections.

The second advantage is that you can master your schedule with a business jet. Sometimes you can even fit several trips during one journey. In a country like Australia, which is very big, I can imagine easily that you could do in one day what it would take close to a week to accomplish with a typical airliner because you don’t have all the different flights. The flexibility of business jets is very attractive.

The Falcon 6X is a massive launch for the business jet market. What makes it so unique?

The Falcon 6X is a very special aircraft because we have kept technology we developed on our military aircraft. The digital flight control system is, in our opinion, the best in the world, because it is derived from fighter jets. So, for safety, comfort and performance, this aircraft is outstanding. In terms of innovation, we put more emphasis on the cabin, and particularly in the cabin size.

If you compare it to its competitors, the Embraer 500 or 600, the cabin size of the 6x is more than the 650. You can land on short runways, and particularly in Australia, where we know some of the runways are particularly challenging.

Cabin size is increasingly becoming a huge selling point for business jets. Why do you think this is?

The Falcon 6X is a very special aircraft because we have kept technology we developed on our military aircraft. The digital flight control system is, in our opinion, the best in the world, because it is derived from fighter jets. So, for safety, comfort and performance, this aircraft is outstanding. In terms of innovation, we put more emphasis on the cabin, and particularly in the cabin size.

If you compare it to its competitors, the Embraer 500 or 600, the cabin size of the 6x is more than the 650. You can land on short runways, and particularly in Australia, where we know some of the runways are particularly challenging.

What makes the Australian market so unique to Dassault?

The Australian market is obviously extremely specific because you’re on a big island, extremely removed from other continents. It makes you special. And as a matter of fact, when you want to travel onto another continent, it’s one of the challenges because you have to cover the distance. The other aspect of Australia’s market is you also have challenging airports, meaning that sometimes the distance is short or the runway is not that long.

The good news on our side is that we have this flexibility, this robustness in our aircraft to go to such challenging airports. It is a good market because Australians, like in the United States, understand the interest of having a business jet to cover big distances. When people are in a hurry to take a business jet – whether they are a doctor or need to go to a destination – they don’t want the burden of the airline. Plus, the Australian market is a very educated one, meaning people are technically skilful and appreciate aviation.

Talk us through sharing technology and information between your fighter jet department and your commercial business jet offering?

The digital flight controls for the Falcon 6X came from the military side. Initially, we developed the first of what we call ‘fly by wire’ flight controls, but that’s not really the right term to use for them. You could imagine that you ‘wire’ the control but, as matter of fact, it’s actually a digital control, because everything is made through a computer, and the computer receives its inputs from the stick, controlled by the pilot. Those inputs are transferred to the computer, which then addresses the controls, the flaps, and so on, to establish how they have to move to answer the pilot’s inputs. Those digital control systems were clearly developed in the military field, and they will transfer for the first time on the 7x, then the 8x, the 6x, and we will go from there.

What’s the future of the business jet market as we start to exit the pandemic?

Some people think that remote working has changed the way we want to meet people – but we are still human beings. Human beings like contact, meaning that there are things that you will do remotely, but there are things that you need to do face-to-face. For example, maybe that’s a negotiation or perhaps it’s to go check out a facility on your own to see what’s going on.