Dassault Pulls Plug On Falcon 5X
The high-end bizjet was the victim of a failed engine program
This past week Dassault announced that it was officially putting the 5X out of its misery, pulling the plug and calling it a day on the $45 million Gulfstream competitor. There's no one in the industry, however, who doesn't suspect that Dassault has Plan B not only hatched but well on its way.
The 5X was to be powered by the new Silvercrest engines by Safran in what would have been an epicurean-level pairing of a French airframe with French engines, but it was not to be. The Silvercrest engines were central to the mission of the 5X, which would have been a bit of a unicorn, with an enviably wide and tall cabin, and with big windows, but with engines that sipped at the fuel, comparatively speaking, that is. The Silvercrest engines would burn, Dassault projected, 30 percent less fuel than its existing competitors, making it an economical choice, well, among the $50-ish million-dollar field of planes anyways. According to reports, the engine, which was expected to be certified years ago, met with numerous performance and reliability issues, and Dassault said in its comments on the cancelation that it believed the engine delay would have made it impossible to hit its certification and delivery targets.
The company also hinted at a replacement that would feature engines from a different supplier but likely the same cabin and similar range and speed as the 5X, which was to be a 5,000-plus nautical mile airplane at Mach .80.
Learn more at Dassault Aviation.
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