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Honeywell Falcon 50 with Three -40s Makes NBAA Debut

We were all smiles when we landed at San Diego-Lindbergh after flying Honeywell's Falcon 50-40 Retrofit last Tuesday. No wonder. Its performance is the same as that of a brand new Falcon 50EX. The 50-40 is fitted with Honeywell TFE731-40 engines providing 24 percent more cruise thrust and 7 percent better SFCs.

Departing Lindbergh at a takeoff weight of 38,000 lb., we climbed directly to FL 430 -- a feat the cruise performance manual said was impossible. The manual, in other words, under-promises, while the aircraft over-delivers

.Our route of flight took us due west from KSAN into W291 under the direction of Beaver Control, the military agency responsible for ATC and for U.S. Navy surface traffic in the warning area.

After level off, Beaver maneuvered us extensively to keep us clear of a live ship-to-target missile firing exercise, thus delaying our acceleration to cruise speed. Once we could straighten our course for a cruise performance check, we had burned off enough fuel to reduce our weight to 36,000 lb and the aircraft stabilized at .800 Mach (455 KTAS in ISA-2 degree conditions) while burning 1,935 pph, resulting in .235 lb/nmi specific range. The cruise performance manual said the aircraft couldn't fly this fast at this altitude until its weight had decreased to 33,500 lb. The book predicted a cruise speed of .760 Mach. So much for book performance.

Want a closer look? N750H, Honeywell's 50-40 demonstrator, due for DGAC and FAA certification by the end of this month, is on display at the NBAA Static Display at Lakefront Airport. Complete with four-tube Rockwell-Collins Pro Line 4 avionics and Falcon 50EX airframe and systems improvements, the upgrade is priced at $7.3 million and takes approximately 16 weeks for installation. Honeywell will offer up to $900,000 to $1,000,000 in trade value for the old ­3 engines.

The firm also plans to offer the ­40 and systems upgrade without the Pro Line 4 avionics package for as little as $4.3 million, depending upon the trade-in value of the old ­3 engines.

By Fred George