Dassault Goes for Cabin Enhancements in A Big Way

• Dassault Aviation

Competition among business jet manufacturers is often a battle of inches. The new Falcon 10X, for example is 11 inches (.28 meters) wider than competing ultra-long-range models, making a new level of comfort possible. The 10X is being built today and will enter service at the end of 2025.

Thanks to a wider cross section, the 10X’s aft stateroom is more like a nice hotel room than traditional aft cabins. It’s the only one (short of converted airliners) that can take a full 60-inch queen size bed, and it also has the roomiest shower (including a window with chromatic dimmer).

Dassault, which has long prided itself for transferring fighter knowhow into business jets, has been thinking a lot about the passenger experience in recent years. Having introduced flyby-wire technology to business aviation in pursuit of superior handling qualities, the company is now equally obsessed with how passengers, sleep, eat, work and simply enjoy the experience of flight.

With the biggest CEO staterooms in the industry on both the 10X and new 6X (which has the second largest cross section in a business jet and is 11 inches wider than its nearest competitor), Dassault considered how to provide a better experience for other passengers—maybe senior vice presidents or other aides. Rethinking every aspect of the cabin has become more important as range, capability and flight durations have increased. The 6X, which enters service mid next year, can fly up to 12-hour missions, the 10X up to 15 hours.

A True Business Jet Innovation

The Falcon Privacy Suite was borne out of the twin desire to provide more privacy and to make it easier to get proper rest on long flights.

The Falcon Privacy suite is an intimate space to enjoy a bit of solitude on long flights or a tête-à tête with one colleague, who can sit on an ottoman opposite the main seat.

The seat itself can electrically recline to any angle all the way to become an 80-inch, lie-flat bed. That’s long enough for almost anyone to stretch out completely.

The suite has its own lighting and its own 24-inch TV monitor. It also has its own hanging storage and room for a roll-aboard bag. Passengers can imagine they are completely alone on a flight, or mingle with others as their mood and work requirements dictate.

Airlines have long understood the importance of lie-flat beds and creating little cocoons for individual passengers. But airlines also have big cabins and load hauling capabilities. Space is at a premium on even the biggest business jets and weight is always a consideration. Add to those challenges the considerable difficulty in meeting safety certification requirements for new types of seating. The development of the Falcon Privacy Suite was a two-year collaboration between Dassault’s in-house Falcon Design Studio and the Dassault engineering department. Together, they consider it a triumph from stylistic and technical standpoints.

The new seating option is available on Dassault’s 6X and 8X longhaul jets and customers can order more than one per aircraft.

Invisible Benefits

Dassault understands that creative use of interior space is only one part of the comfort equation. One of the most important comfort factors is completely unseen: pressurization. If you’ve had a long trip on an airliner recently, reflect on how you felt at the end. Cabin pressure altitude is around 6,000 feet on the most modern airliners and up to about 8,000 feet on older ones.

The cabin altitude on the 10X will be just 3,000 feet and the 6X will be similar. Passengers will experience Pure Air in the cabin thanks to new generation filters that scrub ozone and volatile organic chemicals from the air, a first in business aviation. Air quality has received much more attention since the beginning of the Covid pandemic and new Falcons offer maximum protection, including hospital-grade HEPA filters, when it comes to air quality.

They also shine at interior temperature management, with control by seating area and a dual airflow system, with air introduced at floor and ceiling for uniform temperature distribution. Last of the invisible components is sound, the reduction of which is both science and art. The latest Falcons have interior sound levels below 50 dB, which is living room quiet.

Dassault also notes its superior ride quality thanks to the quick and smooth reaction of digital flight controls, plus wings that have dampening properties, smoothing out the bumps. JetNet IQ, a market data firm, reports that customers are three times more likely to enjoy the ride in a Falcon.

The inside story is, of course, just part of what makes the hightechnology Falcons unique. But if you tell the company it is inching ahead of the competition, it will wholeheartedly agree.

www.dassaultfalcon.com