By Ray Jaworowski, Senior Aerospace Analyst, Forecast International.
Dassault is making steady progress in the Falcon 6X program. Plans call for the new long-range business jet to make its initial flight in early 2021 and enter service in 2022. Although this timetable may be a bit ambitious, the 6X does share some features with its now-canceled Falcon 5X predecessor, and thus the 6X development effort benefits from certain work done in the previous program.
Nevertheless, the Falcon 6X is a considerably different aircraft than the Falcon 5X. The 6X has longer range (5,500 nm at Mach 0.80 with eight passengers), new engines (a pair of Pratt & Whitney Canada PW812D turbofans), a larger cabin, more fuel capacity, and a variety of new systems.
Within the long-range jet class, the most direct sales competitor to the Falcon 6X is the Gulfstream G500, which entered service in 2018.
Dassault is also working on a design for another new Falcon business jet, but has so far not released any details regarding this aircraft. It could turn out to be a larger version of the Falcon 6X designed to compete with such ultra-long-range jets as the Bombardier Global 7500 and Gulfstream G650ER. Dassault had intended the Falcon 5X to be the baseline model of a new family of Falcons, and the company could now be looking to leverage the 6X design into a new series.
Service entry of the new Falcon is planned to occur a few years after that of the Falcon 6X. If this aircraft is not a longer-range version of the 6X, the next Falcon to appear after it might very well be.
Meanwhile, Dassault’s Falcon 900LX trijet has been available since 2016 in an upgraded version featuring a redesigned cabin and other improvements. However, the Falcon 6X resides in essentially the same market niche, which could soon spell the end of production of the 900LX. The 6X will provide the 900LX with considerable in-house competition, and may significantly cannibalize demand for the older aircraft.
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