Design

Ever since the development of the Falcon 2000 in the early 1990s, Falcon aircraft have been fully designed on the basis of a digital mockup.

Use of the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) concept, developed by Dassault Systèmes, optimizes aircraft development by integrating at an early stage all the design, production and maintenance constraints. It gathers into a single database all the data concerning the aircraft and its successive versions.

Production

Today all the industrial processes at Dassault Aviation (sheetmetal working, tubing, coating, assembly, composites, mechanical parts, electricity, etc.) are digital. Design data are directly shared by production staff in a continuous industrial process.

Automation of certain complex assembly activities has also rapidly improved over the recent years. Assembly of the first 7X fuselages in the Biarritz facility has been applied to the Falcon 2000 assembly line and will soon be applied to the Falcon 900 assembly line too.

Initial work on modeling production flows was performed in 2008 in the Argenteuil and Argonay facilities workshops. Equivalent 3D simulation studies have enabled us to optimize completion activities at the Little Rock site. They also improve reactivity in the management of incidents and in workshop reorganization.

Flight equipment

Dassault Aviation’s reputation in the area of flight controls is well established. Falcon aircraft are particularly appreciated for their exceptional flying characteristics and maneuverability. The Falcon 7X is the first business aircraft to be fitted with all-digital flight controls. It incorporates 30 years of experience acquired from the Mirage and Rafale programs. In addition to the safety benefits, the digital flight control system offers greater precision and unprecedented comfort for the pilot.

Today, the EASy (Enhanced Avionics System) cockpit, developed in partnership with Honeywell, equips the entire Falcon family. It constitutes a unique reference in terms of quality of the man-machine interface. The organization and quality of the information displays and the ergonomics of the interface make it a trend-setter. They help to enhance situational awareness and reduce the pilot workload. It thus contributes to improved safety.