Asian Sky Quarterly 2020Q4

AIRCRAFT SPOTLIGHT: FALCON 6X
FALCON 6X ROLLOUT PUTS
THE SPOTLIGHT ON ADVANCED
TECHNOLOGY AND BIG CABIN COMFORT
Aircraft companies expect challenges (usually engineering related)
on the path to the rollout and first flight of a new aircraft.
But Dassault could not have anticipated the disruption of a
pandemic that arrived out of the blue in March 2020.
As the world grappled with the first wave of the crisis, for a time, work
came to a halt. This was true not only of the 6X assembly hall in Bordeaux-Mérignac,
but also at suppliers in Europe and North America.
Suddenly, the timeline to a year-end rollout was in doubt.
majority of popular business aviation destinations nonstop. The 6X can
fly without needing to stop for fuel from Los Angeles to Moscow, for
example, or Beijing to San Francisco. Remarkably, for an aircraft of its
size, the 6X can routinely slip into and out of smaller airports, even
those with runways under 1,200 meters. Approach speed is as low as
109 knots, which is about the same as small turboprops.
The 6X is a big story in part because it sets a new benchmark for
cabin spaciousness. It has the largest cabin cross section of any pur-
Then Dassault and its partner suppliers base rallied, putting in place
the safety precautions required to protect workers, and resume an international
collaboration. Parts and structures began flowing into Mérignac.
Pratt & Whitney Canada commenced flight-testing of the Falcon
6X’s PW812D engine, and, against great obstacles, the 6X program was
quickly back on track.
“We have faced an unprecedented challenge but working with our partners
up and down the supply chain, we have been resilient,” Dassault
Aviation Chairman and CEO Eric Trappier told the world at business
aviation’s first socially distanced, livestreamed rollout on December
8th, 2020.
Trappier recalled the drive and spirit of founder Marcel Dassault, who
created an aerospace leader in the immediate post-WWII period: “Building
this aircraft, arriving at this moment, we have proven his resilience
lives on in the DNA of the Falcon family.”
The Falcon 6X is a success story on many levels. It is the first all-new
Falcon in a generation and pioneers new levels of efficiency, comfort
and safety, with all the performance strengths of the Falcon line.
Small details received
great attention.
So innovative
was the styling of
the 6X cabin that it
received the 2020
International Yacht
& Aviation award for
interior design.
The range of the Falcon 6X is 10,186 kilometers, connecting the vast
26 | ASIAN SKY QUARTERLY — FOURTH QUARTER 2020