For Dassault Aviation, much of the focus at NBAA will inevitably be on what you cannot see – yet, anyway. But what cannot be seen can at least be felt, in the form of a mock-up of the cabin of its upcoming Falcon 5X.
Visitors to the Falcon stand will surely be impressed by the size of that cabin. With a fuselage diameter of 2.7m (8ft 10in) – a full 20cm bigger than the Falcon 900LX, 2000S and 7X models that will feature in the static display, and also bigger even than the in-development 8X – the 5,200nm (9,630km)-range 5X promises nothing short of “the best comfort in the market”, according to senior vice-president civil aircraft Olivier Villa.
That cabin, he adds, is taller and wider than even that of the ultra-long-range Gulfstream G650.
In a pre-NBAA briefing at Dassault’s headquarters in the Paris suburb of St Cloud, Villa stressed the company’s dedication to what it calls Falcon “DNA”, which in part means matching or exceeding rivals’ cabin space in aircraft with smaller overall dimensions and offering exceptional short-field take-off and landing performance. “Business aviation is all about flexibility,” says Villa, adding: “Technology pays.”
He underscores that point when asked if Dassault has an answer to the emergence of business aircraft with range capability of around 7,000nm. The 8X, a stretch of the 7X with extensive new features including an all-new wing, is billed as an ultra-long-range aircraft, at 6,450nm, and although Villa says it is looking at the 7,000nm range point, it has no current plans for an aircraft in that space.
The trade-offs, he says, are not attractive. An aircraft able to cover such a distance at high speed would sacrifice the “short hop” capability that Dassault believes is a key selling point for its customers. Such an aircraft, he says, “is not a Falcon”.
To appreciate just how much payback comes from technology, Dassault gave journalists a glimpse of its 5X “simulation bench”, a room full of computers connected to an actual 5X flight control system. Here, engineers can recreate any situation that might arise in flight, working with the aircraft’s fly-by-wire flight control system in real time.
Because the computers – and an adjacent simulated cockpit with immersive exterior visuals – are connected to actual control surfaces, the system gets much closer to reality than can achieved by working in the pure virtual reality of the aircraft’s digital mock-up.
The simulation bench can be used, then, throughout the certification campaign and even for in-service troubleshooting. It can verify systems, help prepare flight test campaigns and train pilots. As programmes director Frédéric Petit puts it, moving from digital design through manufacturing and first flight is a “step by step” process.
For the 8X, Dassault employs a similar set-up, though here it has the advantage of being able to share the rig with the 7X.
But the most compelling example of new technology driving improvements in aircraft performance can be seen at Dassault’s wing factory in Martignas, near Bordeaux. There, the wings for all Dassault aircraft – civil and military – are made, including, of course those for the 5X and 8X.
To ensure the maximum precision of shape, and durability in service, technicians assembling Falcon wings use an aluminium powder resin to fill any gaps between members that are greater than 0.04mm. On the several 5X wings so far built, none of this resin has been used. Perfection is a relative concept, but Martignas staff are starting to use this word to describe the plant’s output.
One operator of the laser inspection equipment used to check a finished wing against the digital design specification is said to have reported that he has “never seen so beautiful a shape”.
For operators of Falcon aircraft, perfection in manufacturing must, surely, be an example of invisible technology that pays off throughout the life of the aircraft. If designers can work to ever-finer tolerances with the assurance that the end product will, in fact, match their specifications, they can design for higher performance.
Falcon designers are also taking a very practical, economic approach when it comes to the 8X. Though the aircraft is 2m longer than a 7X (with an extra fuselage section on either side of the wing) and adds some 500nm to its range, the wings are, in external shape, the same apart from a new winglet. They are, however, 600kg (1,320lb) lighter and more aeroelastic.
By keeping the external dimensions the same, 8X and 7X wings can be made on the same jigs at Martignas – saving the €800,000 ($1 million) cost of having special jigs built for the 8X, but also allowing greater flexibility in production. Indeed, the plan is for entire 7X and 8X aircraft to share the same assembly line.
Meanwhile, nearby at Dassault’s assembly plant at Bordeaux Mérignac airport, the first examples of the 5X and 8X are taking shape. For the 8X trijet, its Pratt & Whitney Canada PW307D engines have flown on Pratt’s Boeing 747 testbed, and will be powered up on the 8X in November, with engine certification expected in March 2015. First flight should come during the first quarter of 2015, with a second test aircraft in the air four to six weeks later; a third flight-test aircraft will be used to validate cabin systems – and, like the second aircraft, will be sold to a customer.
A 550h, 200-flight test campaign over 14 months should lead to aircraft certification in mid-2016 and first delivery during the second half of the year.
Where the 8X certification campaign can draw on the extensive data already gathered on the 7X, of which it is a stretch, three of the all-new 5X will be put through a more extensive set of trials lasting some 1,500h during 500 flights over 20 months.
By the end of 2015, all three 5Xs will be on the ramp at Dassault’s flight test centre in Istres. As chief test pilot Philippe Deleume notes, 2015 will be a year of high workload for his team, which now numbers 16, to work across all of Dassault’s civil and military programmes. The 5X and 8X certification campaigns will be the focus of attention for six of those pilots, supported by about 150 specialists on the ground.
But for now, with that flight-test campaign yet to start and everything moving along to schedule at headquarters and at the factories in Bordeaux, what is most notable at Falcon is that nobody is breaking a sweat.
Indeed, the only perspiration likely to be seen on a Dassault brow will be in Orlando. But unless any customers are hot under collar, that will be solely owing to Florida’s humidity.
Source: Flight Daily News
