After a number of frustrating and heart-breaking technical issues and delays, Eric Trappier, Chariman and CEO of Dassault Aviation faced a tough choice.
Safran, whom were to supply the doomed 5X with its Silvercrest engines, faced a number of technical issues during the production of the jet. Things were not going to plan – far from it.
In December last year, Trappier axed the production of the 5X and terminated the contract with manufacturer, Safran. What would happen next? How, now, would Dassault provide a top-of-the-line business jet for its hungry customers?
Enter the 6X – the new business jet recently unveiled at a lavish ceremony by Dassault in the hanger of Le Bourget airport.
The “Falcon experience” still remains as the top priority for Dassault Aviation, as Trappier noted in the ceremony, with the new model “really raising the bar” in the business aviation jet market.
Trappier, responding to queries of why the ceremony was held in Le Bourget airport stated that Le Bourget is a “major operating base” for the company and “the airport for business aviation.”
The hanger in which the 6X was presented was also named as a “very modern showroom” by the Dassault CEO. Le Bourget also has the distinction of being visited by Charles Lindbergh, a pioneer in aviation and a figure in which Dassault relate to as innovators in the industry.
The new 6X boasts a wider, taller and bigger cabin with added skylight; it has a longer range than the 5X while retaining some of the defunct model’s architecture. It also boasts the quietest cabin in business aviation, according to Trappier.
Dassault aims to fly the new model in three years, with the 6X on the market in the next four, which Trappier does concede is a “tight schedule.”
The 6X will “offer more money for [its] customers” and includes the “optimum technology in safety and comfort.”
The 6X is in “a class of its own,” says Trappier. After the troubled production of the earlier model, Dassault are hoping that it is time to look towards the future of business aviation with the Falcon 6X jet.