Dassault makes progress on Falcon 5X production

Dasault Falcon 5X wings

Dassault Aviation joins the centre fuselage of the first Falcon 5X.

Dasault Falcon 5X wings

Dassault Aviation has joined the main centre fuselage sub-assemblies of the Falcon 5X. The 5,200 nm Falcon 5X was unveiled at the NBAA in Las Vegas, Nevada last year.

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The first flight of the Falcon 5X is expected in the first half of 2015 and entry into service in mid-2017.

The sub-assemblies were joined at the Dassault facility in Biarritz, France. The completed assemblies arrived in March at the plant in south-western France and were joined there to the wing centre section in mid-April.

Next month, the main centre section will be joined to the forward section, when these major components are connected, the aircraft will begin to take shape. Once fully assembled and pressure tested, the fuselage will be transported to the Mérignac plant, near Bordeaux, for aircraft final assembly.

Olivier Villa, senior vice president, Dassault Aviation, Civil Aircraft, said: “We are extremely pleased with the way work is progressing. The center fuselage subassemblies fit perfectly and we expect to have the aircraft fully assembled and ready for testing by the summer, right on schedule.”

“Thanks to our experience with the ultra long range Falcon 7X, the 5X benefits from fully mature production processes and we are in a position to capitalise on and leverage that experience for the 5X,” added Villa.

The first fuselage delivery is expected in the summer; the wings are due to arrive at Mérignac at the same time as the fuselage, the Héroux-Devtek landing gear is ready and the Snecma (Safran) Silvercrest engines are due to arrive later this summer.