Leading French aircraft manufacturer, Dassault Aviation, now has a new flagship, the Falcon 8X, which was unveiled at its Bordeaux-Merignac facility on December 17, 2014. This flagship business jet was rolled out for the first time in front of an audience of operators, industrial partners and representatives of certification authorities. The Falcon 8X is all on course for its maiden flight in the first quarter of 2015 and deliveries scheduled for second half of 2016.

The ultra long-range Falcon 8X is the latest addition to the growing Falcon business jet family. At the unveiling ceremony, the Chairman and CEO of Dassault Aviation, Eric Trappier, said: “Dassault’s tradition of innovation and excellence helps explain the success of the Falcon 7X. More than 250 aircraft have been built in the seven years since service introduction and demand remains strong. We anticipate a similarly bright future for the 8X.”

Trappier said: “It builds on Dassault expertise in aerodynamics, in precision design and manufacturing and in advanced digital flight controls. It embodies the best of Falcons that have come before with the most capability of any Falcon ever.”

With the 8X, customers will also have an unprecedented selection of cabin customisation solutions, offering 30 different arrangements, each one with the highest level of comfort and connectivity in the industry. It will be your home in the sky. The 8X will be our most advanced fly-by-wire business jet, drawing on the heritage of the popular Falcon 7X and 40 years of digital flight control experience with top-line fighter aircraft. It will be the biggest Falcon ever and yet will remain amazingly light and agile, totally at home at small, demanding airports like Aspen, St Morritz and Cannes. And despite its size, the 8X will be more efficient, too. Stretching very precious pound of fuel and reducing emissions. In short, the 8X will be an example of what Dassault does best—maximising the usefulness,efficiency and comfort of the business jet experience.”

Family of Six Jets

With two new aircraft under development, the 5X and 8X, Dassault will now be able to offer a family of six jets designed to meet the widest possible range of operator needs at the upper end of the business jet spectrum.

Ultra Long-Range

The Falcon 8X offers a good range and has the longest cabin in the Falcon family, along with the most extensive selection of cabin configurations available on any executive jet. The 8X will offer a greater range of 6,450 nm (11,945 km) and a cabin 3.5 feet longer than the 7X while affording the same low operating economics and remarkable operating flexibility for which Falcon Jets are known.

The final assembly and testing of the 8X is taking place at state-of-the-art Charles Lindbergh hall at Merignac. The facility was built to handle production of the Falcon 7X and the 8X will draw on the same advanced digital design and manufacturing techniques pioneered with the 7X.

“We are extremely happy with progress on our new Falcon flagship,” said Olivier Villa, Senior Vice President, Civil Aircraft, Dassault Aviation. “The programme is right on schedule and all systems are performing exactly as designed.” A total of three aircraft, including one fully outfitted with a cabin interior, will be used in the flight test and certification campaign.

Falcon 8X: Setting a New Cabin Standard

The Falcon 8X cabin will be 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) high and 7 ft 8 in (2.34 m) wide and 42 ft 8 in (13 m) long, enabling it to offer the most diverse selection of cabin layouts on the market. More than 30 configurations will be available. Customers will be able to choose from three galley sizes, two with a crew-rest option and lounges of varying lengths capable of supporting a range of lavatory layouts including one with shower.

This is Dassault’s longest cabin and every inch is used to advantage. With over 30 possible layouts, this is the industry’s most flexible cabin and the one most likely to offer an interior solution that meets customer’s exacting requirements. Noise and cabin altitude are low and air quality is high. Connectivity is complete in this Wi-Fi environment with the latest Falcon Cabin HD+ cabin management system which facilitates control over environment from anywhere in the cabin, using Apple devices. There’s an app that lets the passenger call up a virtual moving map of any area around by simply pointing ones iPad in its direction.

New Power Plant

With eight passengers and a three-man crew, the Falcon 8X will be capable of flying 6,450 nm at Mach 0.8 non-stop. It will be powered by an improved version of the Pratt and Whitney Canada PW307 engine that equips the Falcon 7X. Combined with improvements to wing design, the new power plant will make the 8X up to 35 per cent more fuelefficient than any other aircraft in the ultra long-range segment, affording a corresponding savings in operating costs.

The 8X will be equipped with an array of innovative onboard systems largely proven on the 7X, including an enhanced version of the 7X’s Digital Flight Control System. It will also come with a redesigned cockpit featuring an optional combined synthetic/enhanced vision head-up display.

Serve Challenging Airports

Like the 7X, the Falcon 8X will be capable of approaches up to six degrees, allowing it to serve challenging airports such as London City Airport and Lugano, Switzerland, that are normally not accessible to large cabin aircraft. The aircraft will have a balanced field length of about 6,000 ft and an approach speed at typical landing weight of 107 knots. Steep approach angles and strong climb-out gradients are no problem for the Falcon 8X, nor are hot and high conditions. The aircraft is expected to deliver superior range from both. It is the only ultra long-range business jet that can use London City’s 3,934 foot (1,200 m) runwayand after take-off, it can fly non-stop to Dubai or New York.

The 8X will also be able to perform an extensive list of oneleg missions, including Beijing to New York, Hong Kong to Seattle and New York to Dubai.

The Falcon 8X continues Falcon traditions of efficiency, performance, flexibility and comfort, while saving millions in total life-cycle costs versus any rival.

More Range After Short Hops

The Falcon 8X can land at 85 per cent of its maximum landing weight, allowing one to fuel up at home base and make a short hop before flying a longer leg of over 4,500 nm without refuelling, thus using the cost advantage of home-based fuel. The tri-jet advantage shortens transoceanic routes. They also contribute to the 8X’s slow and stable approach speed, a mere 106 knots (197 kmph). And its three-engine performance margins allow take offs from shorter runways.

Unbeatable Economics

Dassault claims that the Falcon 8X direct operating costs are as much as 35 per cent lower than those of competing jets. And thanks to its optimised airliner-type MSG-3 maintenance programme, time between 8X major inspections is 800 hours or 12 months, giving operators greater use of the airborne asset.

A Visionary Flight Deck

Totally redesigned, the Falcon 8X cockpit will feature a new generation of EASy flight deck and offer an optional wide-screen head-up display, integrating enhanced and synthetic vision for vastly improved situational awareness in low-visibility conditions. It will also feature Honeywell’s next-generation 3D colour weather radar system with enhanced turbulence detection capability.

PW307D Engines: More Thrust with Less Fuel

At 6,722 pounds (29.9 kN), these enhanced Pratt & Whitney Canada turbofans deliver five per cent more thrust, yet they also lower fuel consumption. Beyond delivering more pounds of thrust for each pound of fuel, they reduce NOx emissions 30 per cent below today’s most stringent standards. The PW300 series has more than 12 million hours of proven and highly reliable operation. Since the rollout of the first Falcon 20 in 1963, over 2,250 Falcon jets have been delivered. The family of Falcon jets currently in production includes the tri-jets, the Falcon 900LX, 7X and 8X as well as the twin-engine 2000LXS, the Falcon 2000S and the Falcon 5X.