Dassault Aviation’s Falcon 6X is on track to see first delivery in 2022, the company revealed during a webinar, yesterday (August 5th). The presentation detailed the specifications and capabilities of what Dassault is marketing as the widest fuselage cross section of any purpose-built business jet, even in the ultra-long range segment.

Dassault CEO, Eric Trappier, said, “Bringing the Falcon 6X to market on schedule is a top priority for the company. Our planning and production staff have been diligent and resourceful in adapting procedures to new sanitary guidelines to keep this programme running smoothly.

“Our suppliers have also made extraordinary efforts to support us. We are grateful to them all,” Trappier added.

The Falcon 6X has a maximum speed of 0.9Mach and a maximum range of 5,500nm according to Don Pointer, director, Marketing & Communications, Dassault. This means the 6X can link cities such as London and Los Angeles and Paris and Tokyo The cabin cross section or fuselage diameter is 8.86ft (2.7m) and or 6.6ft (2.01m) tall.

The aircraft’s Pratt & Whitney Canada PW812D engine completed an initial test campaign earlier this year aboard its Boeing 747 aircraft and a second series of flight tests are scheduled. So far, the PW812D has accumulated over 200 hours in the air and more than 1,600 hours on the ground. It has also completed initial certification tests, including bird strike and ice ingestion.

Production operations at Dassault’s main assembly facility in Bordeaux-Merignac, France are now back underway after some disruption due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The company used the time to implement safer procedures with smaller crews on the production floor and by working in two shift patterns.

Dassault is in negotiations with EASA (European Union Aviation Safety Agency) and FAA to complete the flight test and validation programme ahead of its planned 2022 launch.