PILOT REPORT: DASSAULT FALCON 7X

those 86-foot-span wings carry the 7X through the aircraft that sat on the static line at Le Bourget
Backlogs are long, some incredibly tight turns with ease, people would awaiting delivery to Dassault chairman emeritus
take a closer look. Dassault currently has orders for Serge Dassault.
but the FBW trijet more than 165 copies of the recently certified,
$40.6 million aircraft. The company is currently
I approached the flight with some personal per-
spectives that bear mentioning as well. I have not
building three a month, and the next delivery slot is flown competing aircraft such as the $29.85 million
is worth the wait late 2011 or early 2012.
Kerherve said most of the initial orders for the
G350, which offers approximately the same payload,
or the $37 million Global 5000. Before the June 18
7X are from current Falcon customers, with just a flight in the 7X, I had never flown an aircraft with
by Robert P. Mark
few from Gulfstream and Challenger owners. a sidestick or fly-by-wire controls. I also had no
Pilots new to the 7X complete a 26-day course experience with the Primus Epic EASy flight deck,
This year’s Paris Air Show at Le Bourget pro- before being awarded a type rating. I did not have the which, as it turned out, was actually an advantage
vided an opportunity for me to see Dassault’s new luxury of those weeks of book and simulator time since there was relatively little to unlearn.
Falcon 7X up close before I got my chance at the left before the flight, which had been arranged just a few From a technical aspect, I was curious about
seat, alongside Dassault 26-year veteran senior test days before my arrival in Paris. Nonetheless, I jumped flying an airplane that had no pilot-controlled trim
pilot Yves (Bill) Kerherve, who has since retired at the chance to fly the airplane the 387 nm from Le option–no wheel, no switch. All trim is handled by
from the company. A former French Navy fighter Bourget to the flight-test facility at Marseilles on the the computers, which means the stick would essen-
pilot, Kerherve flew the ultra-quiet 7X through a opening afternoon of the show, especially since there tially not show or feed back any movement to the
series of maneuvers for the crowd on the opening was the possibility of some en route airwork. pilot during flight.
day of the show. Although the 7X is a large-cabin I flew airframe number 1, registered as F-WFBW, Dimensionally, the 7X resembles the Gulf-
business aircraft, its maneuverability made it clear which was not a production airplane. The cabin stream G350 and Global 5000. Gulfstream says
that Dassault designers had not forgotten the Mirage was unfinished and cluttered with a variety of test
and Rafale fighters that came before. equipment and ballast tanks that would prevent a
To see the Falcon 7X in flight and an interview with
While the flight demonstration itself would true check of cabin noise level at altitude. From an Rob Mark, check out the “Paris Air Show Post Show”
probably not convince anyone to write a check on avionics and flying standpoint, however, airframe broadcast on www.AINtv.com.
the spot for a 7X, my guess is that after watching number 1 was as representative of the 7X as S/N 4,

38aaAviation International News • August 2007 • www.ainonline.com

the G350’s maximum payload is 6,300 pounds, The four 10- by 13-inch
and Bombardier publishes 5,170 pounds for the screens of the Epic EASy system
Global 5000. Dassault pegs the 7X’s max payload aboard the 7X allow for only
at 6,000 pounds. The interior of the 7X cabin is 39 a single FMS at a time to be
feet long, compared with the Global 5000’s 42.5 used to prevent one pilot from
feet and the G350’s 45 feet. programming something about
Certainly any aircraft is a blend of capabilities, which the other pilot has no
but range is one area where the 7X surpasses its knowledge. In addition, the Epic
competitors; the French airplane can fly a shade EASy system does not allow one
under 6,000 nm with eight people in the back. You’d pilot to make changes to the
need a G550 (which costs $47.59 million) to fly a flight display of the other without
similar distance nonstop. The G350’s range is 3,800 confirmation from the other pilot.
nm with a similar load. The Global XRS has roughly Each pilot has a primary
the same range as a 7X and a larger cabin but retails flight display that also includes
for about the same price as the G550. all engine operating dynamics.
The issue really becomes how far do you need to The display sits just beneath the
carry how many people? And how much are you visor, requiring only a minor tilt
willing to pay for speed? The 7X is fast. Dassault of the head downward to see. The center panel just AIN contributor Robert Mark, left, flew the Falcon 7X from Paris
calls it a Mach 0.90 aircraft, which means the air- below the visor is the primary navigation display, to Marseilles with Dassault senior test pilot Yves (Bill) Kerherve.
plane offers performance similar to that of the Cita- and the screen beneath that is for systems.
tion X but with a much larger cabin and far greater Although I did not have an opportunity to evalu-
range. But the Globals and the Gulfstreams are no ate the head-up display on this flight, all of the HUD We started the center engine first, then the right
slowpokes either. The Global 5000 and the G550 guidance vector symbology was available on the pri- (number three) and finally the left. Outside air tem-
offer a top speed of Mach 0.89, while the Gulfstream mary flight display, including flight path in green perature in Paris was 24 degrees C (75.2 degrees F),
G350 can fly at Mach 0.88. and thrust vectors in red, a layout designed to mini- and the aircraft was light at about 49,000 pounds, or
mize reaction time about where the thrust levers about 20,000 pounds below gross with 8,000 pounds
Simplifying the Walkaround need to be positioned for any given configuration. of fuel on board. The FMS of later production air-
Approaching the 7X at Le Bourget, I conducted The trackball allows either pilot to update all craft automatically calculates landing and takeoff
a preflight with Dassault pilot and senior examiner portions of the displays–the primary flight display, data, but this particular airplane was not yet
David Bronn. He mentioned that 7X pilots need be
concerned about only a few items during the
walkaround, which can easily be accomplished in
less than 10 minutes.
Bronn explained there is no tolerance for any sort
of hydraulic fluid leaks–no matter how tiny–during
the preflight, just as there is zero tolerance for any
tire wear that appears somewhat uneven. The 7X is
also the first Falcon to have gear pins, three of them,
that must be removed before flight.
Another distinction relates to the airplane’s fly-
by-wire controls. There is no need to flop the control
surfaces during the preflight. Dassault recommends
that pilots inspect them and not move them at all
during the walkaround. Static wicks are always an
issue on high-altitude airplanes, and the 7X is no
different in that respect. No more than two can be
missing around the entire airplane and no more than
one on any control surface.
A quick look in the hellhole shows pilots the
steam-gauge redundancies of everything they see in
the cockpit once on board. The only reason anyone
might stand up in there is to disconnect the battery
when the aircraft is parked, something Dassault
highly recommends. The pilot will quickly find him-
self staring at something that appears to have been
left over from the dark ages, the door to a ram-air
turbine (RAT). If all three alternators on the 7X Airframe number 1, F-WFBW, taxis in at Istres equipped to do the math, so Kerherve handled that
should fail, the RAT door opens to spin up enough after a 387-nm flight from the Paris Air Show. task manually on this flight. The final check before
juice to run many of the onboard systems. The APU taxi was for the fly-by-wire system, which happened
alternator is not available in flight. The 7X also with a click of the mouse.
employs two separate independent power sources to central navigation panel or systems panel–for infor- Kerherve said we’d need about 3,500 feet of run-
supply the fly-by-wire system in an emergency. mation in what appears to be a Windows-like envi- way for takeoff, with speeds of V1 99, Vr 107 and
ronment. The trackball housing is positioned exactly V2 111 for takeoff on 8,700-foot Runway 21 with
Smart Avionics where a pilot might rest his inside hand during flight, flaps set to two. All takeoffs and landings are con-
The APU was already running as the ground crew making it also easy to find by feel. ducted with the leading-edge slats extended. Ker-
prepared for our afternoon departure from the Das- Before-start checks and programming the FMS herve gave me the takeoff briefing before we taxied
sault Falcon Service ramp at Le Bourget. Dominique were traditional, as were the engine starts them- out. “When I call rotate, pull the stick back gently
Chenevier, another senior Dassault pilot, was in the selves. All three of the 6,400-pound-thrust Pratt & until you see the pitch of the nose in a position
jumpseat. The avionics were already on as Kerherve Whitney Canada PW307As are fadec-controlled, where you are comfortable and simply release the
offered me the left seat and explained the Epic which means pilot interaction is minimal, requiring stick. Never push.” That was the end of the briefing.
EASy trackball system and the 7X’s complete lack only that the pilot move a fuel lever during spool-up. He added that it would probably take me no more
of steering tiller. The cockpit seats seemed comfort- Pitot heat and windshield heat come on automati- than 10 seconds to get used to the sidestick control.
able, and Kerherve said the seats in the production cally once two engines are running, which makes for For taxi, there is no tiller. With the aircraft
model are considerably more plush. essentially no items at takeoff. Continues on next page u

www.ainonline.com • August 2007 • Aviation International Newsaa39

 uContinued from preceding page few very light movements on the sidestick. As Ker- production interior the noise in the cockpit seemed
pointed east after the engine starts, I pushed the left herve had predicted, it took only a short time to get quite tolerable.On the way to Marseilles we set in the
rudder to the floor and released the parking brake. used to it. I want one from now on. frequency for the special flight-test area ATC that
As light as the airplane was, it began to roll ahead The sidestick is a revolutionary style of flying an Dassault had set up for its operations. We’d ask them
with no advance in the throttles. The rudders are airplane unless, of course, the pilot has considerable for a block of airspace to conduct some airwork be-
sensitive at first but more so if the pilot does not time with Microsoft Flight Simulator. This flight fore heading to Istres, a military base that also dou-
keep his feet high enough on the pedals. The 7X made it clear that Flight Simulator time would not be bles as the flight-test center for Dassault.
soon became a docile airplane to taxi. wasted. Sidesticks allow a pilot to rest his left fore- Along the way, we spoke about a noticeable lack
There are no memory items in the 7X except to arm comfortably on a cushioned pad and quickly of circuit breakers in the 7X. There are essentially
don an oxygen mask in case of decompression or learn to control the aircraft with minor movements none. Nothing can be reset in flight, either. The
fire. The only confirmation needed before the takeoff of the wrist. As I would later see, flying the aircraft designers did not want pilots trying to get mixed up
roll was to verify that all sensor information was in a very nose-high attitude becomes clearly more with bits they had little or no knowledge of.
coming from the left side. difficult, with the strain on the pilot’s wrist sending a By this point in the flight, I was beginning to feel
clearer signal of trouble than the ache of a bicep that the 7X and the Epic EASy system had a much
FBW Makes for a Smooth Flight pulling back on a control wheel. better idea of how to fly the airplane than I did. All I
On takeoff we’d be restricted to 7,000 feet headed All altitude restrictions fell before we ever needed to do was watch and jump in if something
southwest out of Paris. We experienced no delay in reached them, and I wondered if Kerherve had used looked amiss. It was indeed an odd sensation.
takeoff as we reached the runway. The takeoff run some of that French pilot charm on the controllers The trip to Istres at Mach 0.89 was short, and we
was short–12 seconds to reach V1 and less than 10 to pave the way ahead. Climbing through 18,000 Continues on page 42 u
feet at 300 knots, I was reminded
how much difficulty I had had
How does the 7X compare? understanding the French con-
Airplane Price Payload Range Top Speed
trollers while taxiing at Le Bour-
get. “Controllers here speak a
Falcon 7X $40.6 million 6,000 lb 5,950 nm Mach 0.90 sort of Franglish, a French-Eng-
Global 5000 $37 million 5,170 lb 4,800 nm Mach 0.89 lish combination,” Kerherve said,
trying to set my mind at ease
G350 $29.85 million 6,300 lb 3,800 nm Mach 0.88
about a flight he’d probably made
a thousand times.
more until the gear was in transit. While I wanted to Short-term information was delivered graphi-
believe the smooth roll down the runway was all my cally to my display, with slightly more medium-
doing, my guess is the 7X nosewheel steering term information such as flight plan data shown on
through the rudders was tuned precisely and pro- the center display.
duced a smooth run from brake release to rotation. We did almost no keyboard typing, allowing me to
It was an odd feeling to pull the stick gently back focus my eyes where they should be–out the window.
at rotation and then release it when the nose of the We continued to climb to FL390, which took about 15
aircraft was barely 20 feet in the air. But the fly-by- minutes, and I watched the airplane accelerate to
wire was as smooth as silk, and following the flight Mach 0.89. The maximum ceiling is 51,000 feet, at
path vector that Kerherve had programmed for the which the cabin altitude is 6,000 feet. At FL390 the
SID was easy as I continued to fly by hand.Out of cabin remains below 4,000 feet. Level at FL390 I took
3,000 feet the 7X was straining to fly faster as I held off the headset, and even though the airplane had no
it to 250 knots. As someone who spent most of his
career flying aircraft with control wheels, I com-
mented to Kerherve that I felt my hands should be
Because all trim is handled by the computers, the Falcon 7X has
doing something. I felt no pitch changes on depar- no pilot-controlled trim wheel or switch. As a result, the sidestick
ture as first the flaps and then the leading-edge slats provides very little information to the pilot during flight. The
were retracted. But there was little to do other than a airplane is equipped with a four-display Epic EASy system.

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 uContinued from page 40 a cue that I was now flying the airplane. The 7X Airwork in the Falcon 7X revealed just how receptive
were soon beginning our descent. There was no responded quickly and we soon slowed through 180 the airplane is to minor pilot inputs. This is an airplane
to be flown with one’s fingertips.
descent checklist to perform for the 7X as we knots hand flying the airplane. I took no action
approached. Destination weather was VFR with anywhere in the process because there was no
some light rain. The plan was to try some slow flight, noticeable pitch change.
steep turns and configuration changes before landing. Once I began my first steep turn, I put the flight- ing C-130. With 185 knots still on the airspeed indi-
Kerherve explained that in slow flight, the 7X would path vector on the horizon and released the stick as cator, I reduced the power to idle as Kerherve low-
not let the pilot fly into a stall. We would first see the the bank reached the 30-degree mark. The Falcon ered the gear and flaps and I was quickly down to
amber low-speed cue and finally the red tape, but we held the turn perfectly all by itself and with the 120 and easily slowing behind the C-130. Ref speed
would not be able to fly into the red. The pilot can autopilot turned off. I pulled the power back to idle would be 111 knots. The 7X seemed to find a land-
bypass the computer in roll but not in pitch. and listened as the warning system yelled again in a ing power slot easily, and I made small changes with
way that was impossible to miss, “Increase speed.” the throttles until the flare.
Low-speed Airwork There were no pitch changes as I applied power and I retarded the throttles at 40 feet and increased
With the autothrottle now off, I retarded the climbed out of the approaching stall. nose pitch only slightly. On touchdown, the trail-
power and extended the speed brakes to slow the I tried another with flaps at the first notch and ing-link gear made me look good, with an incredi-
airplane, which now weighed in at about 46,000 slats down again with the power at idle. As the bly smooth landing as I pulled the center reverser
pounds. The 7X’s response to my switching off the aircraft neared 102 knots, the system again yelled handle back. We were so slow at touchdown, how-
autopilot was interesting. The sidestick vibrated, at me. Noticeable back pressure was required to ever, that by the time the bucket came out–proba-
hold the 7X in an attitude nose-high bly six seconds–we were already slowing through
enough to slow it to this speed, something 70 knots. The brake-by-wire on the 7X is highly
Falcon 7X Specifications I also believe would be difficult to ignore. effective and I easily used no more than about
We tried it again at full flaps and with the 2,500 feet to the turnoff.
Engines: Three P&WC PW307A turbofans, gear down. The airplane was still control- We taxied to the Dassault ramp and shut down.
6,402 lb thrust each (SL ISA+17ºC) lable down to 83 knots, at which I put it We had used about 4,000 pounds of fuel during the
into a succession of 30-degree banks. 1.6-hour flight. Kerherve said that with the 3,900
Interior dimensions:
After stowing the gear and flaps, I pounds of fuel remaining, we could easily have
Cabin length 39 ft 1 in accelerated the aircraft to 250 knots to try landed in Rome or returned to Paris with a reserve
Cabin width 7 ft 8 in some steeper turns. At 250 knots and less since the 7X burns about 2,000 pounds per hour total
than 35 degrees I again was able to release when it’s light. With full fuel on board, the 7X can
Cabin height 6 ft 2 in
the stick and the 7X would hold the bank. routinely fly from Paris to Cape Town, South Africa;
Cabin volume 1,552 cu ft At more than a 35-degree bank I needed to or Paris to Tokyo; or New York to Dubai nonstop.
Baggage volume 140 cu ft hold the stick back. If I released the side- For a large aircraft, the 7X is incredibly easy to
stick in a 50-degree bank, the aircraft fly. The sidestick was something I quickly learned to
Performance: righted itself to 35 degrees. There is no enjoy, as well. A strong point on this aircraft is how
Max. ramp weight 69,200 lb limit to the bank angle in the 7X–pitch yes, little time I spent with my head inside the cockpit
Max. takeoff weight 69,000 lb bank angle no. because so much necessary information was avail-
Approaching Istres, we descended able almost within my peripheral vision or with only
Max. landing weight 62,400 lb through 4,000 feet and had an opportunity the slightest downward tilt of my head. This is what
Zero fuel weight 41,000 lb to see the TCAS in action as VFR traffic we should all be doing in any airplane.
Basic operating weight 34,272 lb
appeared out of nowhere. Initially at 400 Pilots of the 7X will learn quickly to fly with
below us, it climbed to our altitude as we their fingertips rather than with their hands because
Fuel capacity (usable) 31,940 lb began to search. The “traffic” announce- the aircraft is that light on the controls. Indeed, the
Takeoff distance (balanced field length) 5,505 ft ment quickly switched to “descend, systems that control the 7X may be technologically
descend.” I complied quickly and turned complex, but from a control input perspective they
Approach speed 104 kias
away as the traffic disappeared over us are as light as on a small aircraft.
Landing distance 2,262, ft unseen. Without TCAS, it would have been The immediate question might well be whether or
Range 5,950 nm close despite the good visibility outside. not the 7X is worth the wait. From the perspective of
We eventually headed back to Istres, a pilot who had only a few hours of exposure to the
o
Price: $40.6 million
and the tower sequenced us behind a land- aircraft, I’d have to say absolutely.
Source: Dassault

42aaAviation International News • August 2007 • www.ainonline.com