Dassault Aims For 50 7X Orders By Year End

Dassault Falcon Jet is converting letters of intent for the new high-speed Falcon 7X into firm orders, and hopes to have 50 corporate customers signed up by the end of the year, according to Falcon Jet president John Rosanvallon. The company has set a firm price for the new aircraft-$37.15 million. The first 40 customers will get an introductory price $1.5 million lower than that. Deliveries will start in the second half of 2005.

Dassault will build a new assembly facility at Bordeaux-Merignac for the airplane, according to Olivier Villa, senior vice president for Falcon programs. The wing skins will be produced using high-speed machining, and will be "creep formed" to the final curvature under high temperature and pressure­both of which are new technologies in the corporate market.

According to Villa, a key to the 7X's high performance is improved computational fluid dynamics technology, which can model the aerodynamic effects of flexing and twisting in the slender and highly swept wing. This has allowed Dassault to design a minimum-size wing that can achieve a 41,000-foot initial cruise altitude without buffeting.

Dassault also announced that it will develop and produce the 7X fly-by-wire flight control system in-house, based on its experience with the Mirage 2000 and Rafale fighters.