Dassault (booth 1541) continues to advance its new offerings while delivering 80 aircraft this year, a 10% increase over its 72 deliveries last year.
"We're one of the few OEMs increasing its output over the last year", says John Rosanvallon, president and chief executive of Dassault Falcon. "This is due in particular to the ramp-up of the Falcon 7X program."
Rosanvallon says the company plans to deliver 30 7Xs this year. The company is also targeting about 80 deliveries for 2010 due mainly to the remaining backlog. "After that, we will see," says Charles Edelstenne, chairman of Dassault Aviation.
Meanwhile, the company continues to advance new programs, including a winglet modification for the 900LX, which will boost range and climb performance. For the 2000LX, which was certificated with winglets last year, range has been increased 5% and climb by 7%, says Rosanvallon. To date, Dassault has delivered 22 of the aircraft.
Specific changes to the 900LX include two additional ribs per wing and more stiffeners. The company expects to begin certification flights in the first quarter of 2010, completing the program by the end of the year.
Its next-generation super-midsize continues to be in the "very early" design phase, says Edelstenne, "where we can take into account impacts of long-term market trends".
In the cockpit, Dassault is in the process of certificating with Honeywell the EASy II flightdeck, which includes synthetic vision and next generation air transport system technologies like pilot-controller datalink for the Falcon family. Villa says EASy II will be available for the entire Falcon family by mid-2011.
Farther out, the company is also investing in technologies to optimize efficiency and comfort through methods to actively control wing shape during cruise and increasing the role of electric actuators and power systems.
Source: Flight Daily News
