Business jet manufacturer Dassault continues to evaluate the market as it plots the launch of its next clean-sheet aircraft programme.
Although the airframer is revealing few details about which segment it will target with what it calls the “future Falcon”, chief executive Eric Trappier has indicated that it will have a wider fuselage than the jets in its current range.
Speaking at a Paris press briefing, Trappier said “cabin comfort” had become an increasingly “important trend”, led by the bigger aircraft offered by its US rivals.
Dassault is attempting to address this with the 2.58m-wide (102in) cabin of its developmental Falcon 5X, its largest ever, which Trappier says will be the benchmark for future generations of its business jets.
Dassault
“All our future aircraft will have to be with a cabin size [similar to] the 5X,” he says. “What is for sure is that they will have a wider fuselage than the Falcons flying today: the 5X fuselage looks to be right one.”
For comparison, its newest aircraft, the 8X, has an interior cabin width of 2.34m.
Trappier declines to offer a timeline for the next Falcon development, noting that delays to the 5X, which is now scheduled for service entry in 2020, “have not helped us to go faster”.
He says it has not decided on a size or range class for its future Falcon and is “looking at the full range of the market”.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
