Dassault Aviation has brought its Falcon 8X, which was announced in May last year, to NBAA for the first time. The airplane on display in Las Vegas is the sixth one off the assembly line and will head to Dassault’s completion facility in Arkansas after the show. The 8X, which is derived from the 7X, will offer the longest range and the longest cabin in the Falcon fleet. Three airplanes are now in the flight test program, and the company said they are two-thirds of the way to achieving FAA and EASA approval. Dassault also introduced a new proprietary combined-vision system with a head-up display, and provided an update on its delayed 5X program.
The head-up display system, called FalconEye, combines synthetic terrain mapping with actual images from a multi-sensor camera that can fuse images from a variety of visible and infrared spectrums. “What makes this truly revolutionary is the unique and patented way in which we blend real video of the outside world in low-light conditions with synthetic terrain imagery, a first in the business-jets industry,” said Olivier Villa, a senior vice president at Dassault. The Falcon 5X, which was expected to start deliveries as soon as this year,has been delayed due to problems with the Snecma Silvercrest engines, Dassault CEO Eric Trappier said at the show. “When we have a better understanding [from Snecma], which should come soon, we will totally reorganize the schedule,” he said. “We should be able to do that early next year.”
