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Aviation History
2002
2002 - 2138.PDF
Busme AIMING HIGH Rather than trying to be all things to all business aircraft, Dassault is aiming for the top of the market JUSTIN WASTNAGE / GENEVA Given the breadth of the business-aircraft market, it is understand able that many manufacturers have built ranges to cover every niche. This has seen some impressive results, notably from Canadian manufacturer Bombardier, which has developed or acquired aircraft of virtually every size. French company Dassault is tak ing another approach. It focuses on the top end of the market, from super mid-size upwards. According to figures supplied to the US General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), Dassault delivered 75 business jets worth almost $2 billion last year. This compares with 182 aircraft worth almost $3.3 billion for Bombardier and 101 aircraft worth almost $3.2 billion for Gulfstream. But the French company's share of the upper end of the market was greater and is growing. According to GAMA, Dassault delivered 62 Falcon 2000s and Falcon 900s last year, while Bombardier shipped 71 Challenger 604s and Global Expresses and Gulfstream 71 GIVs and GVs. Despite the competition, Dassault is confident it can reach more than a 50% market share by the end of the decade, both on the strength of new products and from existing owners "upgrading to the best". Jean Rosanvallon, president of the Dassault Falcon Jet subsidiary responsible for marketing in the Americas and East Asia, points to 10-year forecasts from ana lysts Aviation Research Group/US showing the $20-40 million price bracket growing to account for 60% of all business aircraft sales, up from half today. But why not chase the lower end too? The reason is simple, says Dassault presi dent Charles Edelstenne: profitability. This was not always the case. In the early days of business jets, following the success of its Falcon 20, the company launched a shrink version, the Falcon 10. While features taken from Dassault's fighter programmes, such as servo controls, were loved by busi ness-jet pilots, they were cost-prohibitive at the lower end of the market, says Rosanvallon. But the Falcon 10 was launched in a less price-aware era, when the wealthy who bought private jets could indulge their pilots. By the late 1990s, Dassault needed a market analysis to sup port management's gut feeling: that the kind of engineering that goes into a Falcon simply cannot be cost-effective on smaller jets. This is especially true in a marketplace that is becoming "increasingly crowded", says Rosanvallon. Before corporate jets earned their status as efficiency tools, Dassault business jets were successful only because they bor rowed military technology, argues one industry insider. For example, the wing of the original Mystere XX, which later became the Falcon 20, was derived from that of Dassault's Mystere IV fighter. Based on its experience with the Mirage 2000 and Rafale fighters, the company has been at the forefront of the introduction to busi ness aviation of composite structures, inte grated cockpits and fly-by-wire controls. Safety margin Dassault plays down its reliance on mili tary programmes. The company argues it has always applied the latest technology available to civil projects. As an example it cites the use of a third engine on many Falcon variants, the company believing its "type of customer" would rather pay the extra cost for the higher safety margin, the convenience of wider airfield access and the freedom to fly without extended-range twin-engine operations restrictions. Furthermore, the company is no longer dominated by its military business. In the past 15 years, Dassault has undergone a complete reversal, with civil projects accounting for 76% of the company's €3.74 billion ($3.53 billion) sales last year. Falcons are now the most important component of the group, but there is little doubt the bottom line benefited from tech nology transfer in the 1970s and 1980s, when military sales outnumbered civil sales by four to one. All aircraft, for exam ple, are based on a supercritical wing devel oped for the Falcon 50 using technology from the Mirage family. In 1979, the Falcon 50, with its carbonfibre ailerons, became the first civil aircraft with compos ite components to be certificated by the US Federal Aviation Administration. The latest 50EX variant features a new composite horizontal stabiliser, which is 14kg (301b) lighter than the previous all-metal tail- plane thanks to resin transfer moulding developed for Rafale wing production. There is more to the Falcons' appeal than fighter-influenced aerodynamics, the company insists. Founder Marcel Dassault took a keen personal interest in develop ment of the Falcon family and recognised early on that a cramped cabin was a major limitation. By the time Lockheed flew the world's first purpose-designed business jet, the JetStar, in 1957, Dassault had rejected its own first business jet design, the Mediterranee, for reasons including cabin size, the company says. The Falcon 20, launched in 1963, had a cabin 20% larger than that of its nearest rival at the 110 16-22 JULY 2002 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.fliqhtinternational.com
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