Dassault Falcon 10X Is What Happens When Fighter Jets Get All Business

In case the name Dassault doesn’t ring any bells, here’s a quick recap. We’re talking about a French company born in 1929 and responsible, following the end of the Second World War, with making a range of military and civilian airplanes, including the more modern Mirage and Rafale. Strange as it may seem, the company didn’t make any airplanes during the war, because the German overlords kind of disbanded the country’s aviation industry after France was occupied.

On the civilian airplane front, the company is known for its line of Falcon business and corporate jets. The line was born in the 1970s with the Falcon 10 and now, five decades and nine models later, we’re getting the Falcon… 10X.

The airplane is described as being the one with a cross-section “larger than some regional commercial jets.” That would be 6 feet, 8 inches (2.03 m) tall and 9 feet, 1 inch (2.77 m) wide, “almost 8 inches (20 cm) wider and 2 inches (5 cm) taller than the widest and tallest purpose-built business jet flying today.”

These impressive numbers translate into a cabin like no other, not only large, but also highly customizable. With light coming in through 38 windows, the cabin is generally divided into four zones, but the French say that can be changed to serve whatever needs the user has, in infinite layouts.

Dassault even gives an example, saying one could have an expanded dining area, a dedicated entertainment area, and a private stateroom with a fixed queen-size bed, or a master suite with a private stand-up shower.

No matter how one decides to set up the interior, Dassault throws in high-speed connectivity, including Ka-band networking, large monitors, and other devices one would need in the long trips to be made in this plane.

Leveraging its experience in making fighter jets, Dassault says the 10X has been endowed with next-generation military technologies that give it “the beating heart of a fighter.” These solutions include the Falcon Digital Flight Control Technology that makes the plane extremely easy to handle, and the FalconEye Combined Vision System that helps the pilots make their way through ”even the worst weather.”

But the piece of hardware that really makes the Falcon the monster that’s supposed to be is the pair of Rolls-Royce engines that will push this thing along. Each is capable of generating 18,000 lbs of thrust, making the 10X almost supersonic.

Almost, but not quite. The maximum speed the plane is capable of is Mach .925, which would be about 710 mph (1,142 kph), but the maximum range, 8,600 miles (13,900 km), can only be reached when the speed of slightly lower, namely Mach .85 (652 mph/1,049 kph). Even so, this plane is capable of covering the distance between say New York to Shanghai (over 7,300 miles/11,700 km) in a single flight, and in just 11 hours or so.

The Falcon 10X can carry four crew and up to eight passengers at a maximum altitude of 51,000 feet (15,545 meters). According to Dassault, it can take off and land on any typical airport for business aviation.

Although most of the details of the plane are already known, there are a few more years left before the plane actually gets here. At the end of July, the French announced GE Aviation would supply the primary and secondary electrical power distribution and control system for the plane.

Plans are to have this machine in the sky by the end of 2025. Anyone, private individual or company, who plans on ordering one should start saving, as each Falcon 10X will start at about $75 million.