10 Things You Didn’t Know about the Dassault Falcon 5X

The Dassault Falcon 5X was a business jet that had been under developed at said manufacturer’s facilities for some time. Unfortunately, engine problems resulted in the cancellation of the plane, which was followed up by the start of another project that would use engines from another manufacturer. As a result, while the Dassault Falcon 5X might have had promise, that promise will never be lived up to.

The Dassault Falcon 5X started up in 2006. However, the initial plane was code-named SMS, which was short for “Super Mid-size.” Besides that, there wasn’t a lot of other information released about it at the time. Something that was perhaps unsurprising considering the state of the project at that point in time.

2. Supposed to Be Powered by Rolls-Royce Engines

With that said, there was one interesting piece of information that was released at that point in time. In short, the plane was expected to be powered by a pair of Rolls-Royce engines. To be exact, the engines were supposed to be Rolls-Royce RB282 engines, which were being developed for the sake of what would become the Dassault Falcon 5X. Unfortunately, things didn’t pan out in both cases.

3. Revamped Because of Great Recession

Given that it started up in 2006, it should come as no surprise to learn that the project that would become the Dassault 5X was impacted to a considerable extent by the Great Recession, which sent changes rippling throughout countless sectors in the business world. In this case, interest in super mid-sized planes plummeted, which explains why the Dassault 5X went on to become a long-range plane with a large cabin. Something that wasn’t impacted as much by the fallout of the Great Recession.

4. Engine Got Changed

One of the changes that were made as part of the revamp of the project that would become the Dassault 5X was its engines. In short, the Rolls-Royce RB282 engines were rejected. Instead, Dassault decided to go with the Safran Silvercrest, which comes from Safran Aircraft Engines. With that said, it is no exaggeration to say that the Safran Silvercrest has run into its share of problems as well.

5. Delayed Because of Engine Problems

For example, the Dassault Falcon 5X was supposed to be introduced in 2017. However, that plan fell through when Safran run into problems with the Safran Silvercrest engines, which the result that what were supposed to have been completed in 2013 were instead postponed to 2017. Suffice to say that this didn’t do wonders for the prospects of the project as a whole, particularly since it wasn’t the sole issue that popped up.

6. Dassault Demanded Compensation from Safran

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the delay caused by the problems with the Safran Silvercrest had a very material impact on the Dassault 5X. To be exact, Dassault had to put a freeze on production, which wasn’t helped by the fact that some of its clients actually cancelled their orders for the plane. Due to this, Dassault took the step of seeking compensation from Safran, which makes it very clear where they put a significant share of the blame.

7. Initial Flight in July of 2017

It wasn’t until July of 2017 that the Dassault 5X saw its initial flight, which was intended as a stepping stone for further flight tests in 2018 so that it could start seeing use in 2020. Unfortunately, further testing revealed further problems.

8. Dassault Considered Changing Engines

In October of 2017, further testing revealed that there were further problems, meaning that the Dassault 5X wasn’t going to be meeting the 2020 introduction date. Due to this, Dassault stated that changing engines wasn’t ruled out, which was a very unsurprising response considering what had been happening up until that point.

9. Terminated in December of 2017

Finally, Dassault went ahead with the decision to terminate the project in December of 2017. Its reasoning was simple, seeing as how it couldn’t count on the Safran Silvercrest engines, which in turn, mean that it couldn’t carry out its own plans for the plane.

10. Had Some Interesting Features

This was rather unfortunate because the Dassault 5X had some rather interesting features. For example, it boasted a zenith window on its roof, which would’ve let in more light into the cabin than otherwise possible.