Dassault Lags Behind on Falcon 7X Completions

Even with a dedicated hangar at its Little Rock, Ark. completions facility, French aircraft manufacturer Dassault is not meeting scheduled delivery dates of its new 5,950-nm Falcon 7X trijet. “The ramp-up has been a little slower than expected,” Dassault Falcon president John Rosanvallon told AIN, because of higher-than-planned cabin customization requests that have placed more demand for new parts and engineering design work. The company delivered its first finished Falcon 7X in late June and expected to deliver a total of seven aircraft by the end of this year, which is about half the number of deliveries originally projected. According to Rosanvallon, “We are talking with all customers whose aircraft are affected by the delays [and] we are working hard to catch up.” He said the current ramp-up effort will bring the interior outfitting to “our cruise rate” of 40 airplanes a year by the end of 2009. The order book for the Falcon 7X is now approaching 200 aircraft, and more than 60 airplanes are in various stages of production and completion.