2020 Asia Pacific Infrastructure Report

COMPANY PROFILE: DASSAULT AVIATION
3D design standard. But no bizjet maker has longer or deeper
experience with these advanced tools than Dassault, something
that allows the company to keep one step ahead of the competition.
And this makes a difference. Which leads us to point 3.
3. TOP ENGINEERS AND TEST PILOTS
Think of CATIA as a piano and Dassault engineers as concert pianists,
playing different kinds of music but each using the same instrument.
Though serving vastly different markets, Dassault fighters and business
jets are designed by the same engineers and built to the same exacting
production standards, and share tools and best practices from the
same Dassault Systèmes software suite.
Similarly, Dassault’s fighter test pilots are also its business jet test
pilots—and they are a demanding lot. They provide invaluable input into
the design of new Falcons, identifying and adapting the latest fighter
derived technologies that can improve Falcon handling and safety.
4. A FOCUS ON HANDLING AND SAFETY
THROUGH DIGITAL FLIGHT CONTROL
TECHNOLOGY
The first business jet equipped with digital flight control technology
was Dassault’s Falcon 7X, introduced in 2005. The new Falcon 8X
ultra-long range trijet, derived from the 7X, also features a digital
flight control system, as will all subsequent Falcon models. The
Falcon digital flight control system (referred to by many as a flyby-wire
system) reduces pilot workload by minimizing constant
small input corrections to maintain flightpath trajectory. DFCS also
responds automatically and more smoothly to turbulence, helping
to further smooth out the ride for passengers.
Dassault began developing digital control technology for Mirage fighter
jets way back in the 1970s. Its “closed loop” system is more automated
than in other business jets, eliminating, for example, the need for the
pilot to constantly trim off control pressure as speed and attitude
change. Closed loop DFCS is a direct spinoff of fighter design, where
the pilot has to select a trajectory as quickly as possible so he can
attend to other things going on in a potential combat situation.
5. HEAD UP DISPLAYS AND ENHANCED
VISION SYSTEMS
Like digital flight control, head-up displays were invented for
fighter pilots, so they could keep their eyes on flight instruments
without looking down into the cockpit. Dassault was the first
manufacturer to install a HUD on a business jet (the Falcon 2000)
and has had more experience refining these systems for business
jet use than anyone else. The company’s most advanced HUD, the
FalconEye Combined Vision System, provides an accurate picture
of the surrounding terrain and airport environment day or night no
matter what the weather, greatly enhancing safety during flight and
facilitating poor visibility landings. It does this by blending a virtual
terrain database with inputs from six cameras capturing light from
the visual spectrum to infrared—the first time in business aviation
that virtual and enhanced vision capabilities have been combined
in a single HUD. FalconEye allows the pilot to fly approaches into
almost any airfield, whether or not it is equipped with the kind of
precision instrument landing systems found at larger airports.
With FalconEye, pilots can safely descend to within 100 feet of the
runway before picking up natural vision cues.
Falcon owners and passengers may not always be aware of all of
this fighter jet technology transfer, though many savor the fighter
mystique attached to the Dassault trademark and some may even
regard their Falcon as their own private air force. But there’s no
doubt they appreciate the many flying benefits that the storied
Dassault fighter heritage affords.
www.dassaultfalcon.com
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