Dassault Falcon 50
The Falcon 50 is a dreistrahliges business aircraft of the French aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation, the 20 is based on the Dassault Falcon. The Falcon 50 itself has been further developed for Falcon 50 EX. The Dassault Falcon 900 is a new design based on the Falcon 50 Represents the aircraft is used, among others, the Swiss Federal Council. On 6 April 1994, the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi were shot down in a machine of this type, what the genocide in Rwanda was the spark. The production of the Falcon 50 was set in 2008.
History
Beginning of the 1970s, Dassault began with the development of a new business aircraft, which in contrast to the previous models - Falcon 10 and Falcon 20 - especially the need for aircraft should meet with much higher range. In particular, it should be possible to west, the east coast of the United States or vice versa non-stop flights across the Atlantic and from the. To allow such long-haul flights, not only cell and tanks were enlarged, but also developed the Dassault business jet off to this day construction with three instead of the usual two engines. This was advantageous in that as early as the 1950s, all route restrictions for three-engine airplanes would have been canceled while for twin jets still was the strict 60 -minute rule, which strongly limited their usefulness in routes over water.
On November 7, 1976, the two pilots Hervé Leprince- Ringuet and Gérard Joyeuse started in Merignac finally to the first flight with a prototype. Just one month later, however, decided to develop improved supercritical airfoils for the Falcon 50. Such a converted one first flew on 6 May 1977. Thus the Falcon 50 was the first civil aircraft with supercritical airfoils. This wing design proved so successful that the same wings were adopted almost unchanged for the much larger Falcon 900 and Falcon 2000. The approval was granted on 27 February 1997.
The serial production began in 1976 and divided between Dassault and Aérospatiale works:
- The hulls were made at Aerospatiale in Saint- Nazaire.
- The Dassault plant in Colomiers was responsible for the wings.
- The Dassault plant in Merignac took over the final assembly and flight tests.
Technology
The Falcon 50 is a dreistrahliges business aircraft in low-wing design. The drive serve three TFE731 -3 -1C engines by Garrett AiResearch (now part of Honeywell International), wherein the air inlet of the central engine S-shape is arranged (so-called S -Duct ). The range is 5830 km and the maximum cruise speed of Mach 0.8. The partial significantly higher densities of up to 6480 km range, for example by the Swiss Air Force is likely, to another - be due to the calculation of the fuel reserves - probably military. The cabin height is 1.8 m, width 1.86 m and length 7.16 m. The cabin so can accommodate eight to ten passengers.
Falcon 50EX
The Falcon 50EX is an evolution of the original model, which was announced on 26 April 1995 by Dassault. The first flight from Bordeau -Merignac Airport on April 10 of the following year and another year later, the first machine was handed over to a customer. The Falcon 50EX replaced the Falcon 50 in the production completely. The production of the EX was again adjusted in 2008.
The biggest change is the change to improved engines of the model TFE731 -40 dar. Although these engines have the same takeoff thrust, this variant of the TFE731 is more powerful because it has been reduced at high elevation due to a higher operating temperature of the drop in performance. Together with other measures, such as the integration of a FADEC efficiency could be increased by about 7 %, which also allows for a greater range. Furthermore, the maintenance intervals of the engines could be extended.
Modernized also was the laid on the two-man operation cockpit, where now a Pro-Line 4- glass cockpit from Rockwell Collins comes with four CRT EFIS displays are used. As an option, also a head- up display was offered.
Future
The Falcon 50 and Falcon 50EX are still in large numbers in use, which is why Aviation Partners Inc. ( API) - Supplier of winglets for the Falcon 900LX and 2000LX - even for the Falcon 50 Blended Winglets designed as a retrofit.
Dassault itself offers since the end of production of the Falcon 50EX in 2008, no aircraft in this class more. The planned follow-up project with the provisional name super midsize (SMS), after already frozen all the parameters and the RB282 Rolls- Royce had been selected as the engine stopped due to the economic crisis in 2008 and started again from scratch. As of October 2010, the parameters should be now been frozen for the second time and negotiations are underway with partners and suppliers. Entry into service is planned for the year 2016.
User
A machine of the type Falcon 50 with the Presidents of Rwanda and Burundi, Juvenal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira on board was on the evening of April 6, 1994 shot down on the airport Kigali during the approach with two anti-aircraft missiles. Seven high-ranking officials from Rwanda in addition to the two presidents - - It all came nine passengers of the aircraft as well as the three French crew members lost their lives. The attack is considered crucial spark for the genocide in Rwanda.
In Switzerland, uses the air transport service of the Federation ( LTDB ) - a part of the Swiss Air Force - a Falcon 50 The machine was originally owned by the company Aero Leasing Geneva and was used by the Swiss Air Force over again. In December 1995, the aircraft for international UN missions, and as Bundesratsjet was purchased. Consequently, the earlier civil registered as HB- IEP machine on 31 January 1996 was taken under the military registration T -783. In 1999, the cockpit was brought to the state of Falcon 50EX ( Collins Pro -Line 4- glass cockpit ) and in 2006 received the aircraft has a new paint job.
A further Licensees is the French Navy, which owns the Falcon 50M Surmar a special version for monitoring tasks. It is recognizable by the special paint included emblems especially at the two large windows, which replaced the foremost of the seven small windows of the standard version ( see picture ). To equip this version include in particular a surface search radar Thales Ocean Master 100, a Forward-Looking -Infrared System Thales Chlio, three computer terminals and up to eight droppable inflatable lifeboats. In the years 2000 and 2001, five were thus equipped Falcon 50 delivered to the French Navy.
Other government users were or are Burundi, Djibouti, Iraq, Iran, Italy, Jordan, Yugoslavia ( see picture below ), Libya, Morocco, Portugal, Spain, Sudan, South Africa and Venezuela.