Dassault Aviation Falcon 5X Rollout
On June 2, Dassault unveiled its new Falcon 5X at the Charles Lindbergh hall of its Bordeaux-Merignac facility. It rolled back the curtains on the latest addition to the growing Falcon business jet family before an audience of customers, operators, industrial partners and representatives of certification authorities. Dassault Aviation has reached another milestone in in the Falcon 5X program according to Dassault Aviation Chairman/CEO Eric Trappier. At the amazing gala event we met Marián Jančařik, Colibri Aircraft’s Sales Executive in Central and Eastern Europe, and asked for his impressions:
“From design to manufacturing, Dassault Falcon has cultivated a deep-rooted culture of precision and obviously, the latest technical developments and design innovations were introduced and implemented, it makes the Falcon 5X so advanced, refined, comfortable and beautiful.” says Marian who followed the personal invitation to attend the event. Marián Jančařik looks back at more than ten years of direct experience in various aviation sectors which allow him to provide solid consultation to owners and financial institutions regarding aircraft sales and aviation markets. He continues: “Every element of the Falcon 5X cabin seems to be been rethought and restyled, resulting in a contemporary and harmonious look that reinforces the high level of comfort Falcon owners expect.“ The Falcon 5X features the largest cabin cross section in the industry.
The 5X is expected to make its maiden flight this summer. The first 5X model powered up for the first time at the end of August 2014 and started system ground tests last autumn followed by a vibration test campaign. It was joined by s/n 02 earlier this year. Both aircraft are participating in ground testing and s/n 01 recently completed a second engine run up cycle. Bench testing of key systems, including the electrical and fuel system, hydraulics and the aircraft’s advanced digital flight controls, is well advanced. Pilots have completed over 250 simulation flights on the global simulation bench at Dassault Aviation headquarters in Saint-Cloud, France which replicates the 5X’s flight control, avionics and hydraulic systems.
“The Dassault engineers create designs very near to the aerodynamic ideal that minimizes drag. It shows what the rigorous application of advanced digital tools does to enhance every aspect of the aircraft.” Marian Jančařik comments on the jet’s exterior at Dassault’s state-of-the-art facility in Bordeaux.
Testing on Dassault’s simulation bench, which replicates the 5X’s main systems, is well advanced and the 30-months fatigue test campaign on a dedicated airframe. The positive trials have already cleared the aircraft for the commencement of flight tests and will now continue a program to demonstrate three times the design life of the airframe and 1.5 times of the design limit loads. Accumulated simulated flights during fatigue testing will be equivalent to three times the design life of the airframe, or 60,000 cycles, including damage tolerance analysis. A total of 28 different mission profiles will be covered. The campaign also includes margin testing in which engineers intentionally vary input parameters beyond design values to verify the accuracy of computer model algorithms and, ultimately, the safety margins of the structure.
“The various tests will ensure that the 5X is fully mature by delivery of the first aircraft. They are exceeding by far those that the aircraft will be subjected to in service,” according to Marian. The extensive knowledge gained through his direct experiences in a wide variety of aviation transactions enables him to provide outstanding consultation to owners and financial institutions regarding collateral assessment from pre-funding, to ownership, to sale of an aircraft. Marian’s professional know-how explains why ‘Asset Advisor’ is part of his title and that his activities go far beyond that simplistic definition of aircraft brokerage.
In addition to standard qualification tests, aircraft equipment will be subjected to a pair of efficient endurance testing methods – the Highly Accelerated Life Test (HALT) and Highly Accelerated Stress Screening (HASS). The testing will expose equipment and systems to extreme vibration, humidity, temperatures, pressure and other in-flight phenomena exceeding those that the aircraft will be subjected to in service. The 5X development also benefits from the use of Dassault’s new FalconScan tool, developed for onboard fault diagnosis. It has already proven very valuable facilitating ground testing.
Production of the first structural components of the 5X began in 2013 and assembly of the first aircraft fuselage section was done at Dassault’s Argenteuil facility, in France. The final assembly and testing of the jet is taking place at the 250,000-sq ft Charles Lindbergh Building in Bordeaux-Merignac. This aerospace development facility was also used for production of the Falcon 7X and 8X models. The cabin completion will take place at Dassault‘s completion plant in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA which is an industry leader in digital completion techniques, which Dassault pioneered.
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