Dassault Signals Falcon 10X Has Military Ambitions
PARIS—Dassault Aviation’s new Falcon 10X does not just draw on the company’s military aircraft heritage, it also plans to add to it with special mission applications.
The novel cockpit design of Dassault’s new clean-sheet aircraft would allow it to be used in military roles, says Antoine Doussaud, a company Falcon 10X test pilot. The aircraft could find uses such as maritime patrol or electronic warfare, he told reporters on the day the company formally unveiled the business jet.
The 10X is the first that uses the NeXus flight deck with multifunction touch displays for lower workload and enhanced situational awareness. The flight deck comes with an "Open World" capability, Doussaud said, which allows the Falcon 10X to run various applications on the displays. That feature in particular could be of interest to military users that may want to run special mission applications on them.
The Falcon 10X would extend the lineage of special-mission Dassault aircraft. The company this year plans to deliver the first Falcon 2000 Albatros maritime surveillance aircraft to France. The Falcon 8X Archange . The , which offered an A321XLR-based solution.
The 10X also draws on Dassault’s military expertise, including using a composite wing such as on the Rafale fighter. The business jet will introduce into this category automatic autopilot and autothrottle engagement in emergencies, such as G-force-induced loss of consciousness protections on the combat aircraft.
The 10X will also use a terrain database to provide "PULL UP" alerts and trigger a rapid wings-level maneuver and an automatic pull up with maximum thrust.
The bizjet also has a smart throttle that embraces technology already flying on the Rafale to manage thrust even when one engine’s performance is degraded.
The Rolls-Royce Pearl 10X-powered twin jet is designed for a range of up to 7,500 nm at Mach 0.85, with a top speed of 0.925 Mach. The 2,780-ft.3 cabin is 53 ft. 10 in. long, with a 6-ft. 8-in. cabin height and max width of 9 ft. 1 in.
The first two Falcon 10Xs are now built, with two more in assembly. Flight trials are due to begin soon.