Tag Archives: Falcon 6X

First Encounter With The Falcon 6X

One weekend I was casually looking at FlightRadar24 and saw a French registered aircraft on the ramp at Boeing Field.  It didn’t show what it was but a quick search showed it was a Falcon 6X.  This got me rather excited.  Dassault had developed a large cabin twin jet called the Falcon 5X which used an engine called the Silvercrest from Safran.  This engine had a lot of development issues and delayed the Falcon 5X a few times.  Eventually, Dassault’s patience ran out and they cancelled the jet.  They then commenced a new design based on the 5X with a new engine and the associated changes this required.  This became the Falcon 6X.

The jet is in test at the moment.  I am not sure how long it is before they expect it to be certificated but it shouldn’t be too long.  My online search showed that they were running a world tour with the jet at a time which appeared to conclude around the time of the Farnborough show so it would, no doubt, provide some good publicity.  The jet had come to Seattle from Van Nuys and it was to there where it was headed next.

I had no idea how long they were hanging around for but figured it was definitely worth a shot. I drove over to the field and, sure enough, there was the jet on the ramp at Signature near the main terminal.  I wasn’t sure how long it would be before they headed off so, after getting some shots, I headed to the other side of the field assuming a departure would come.  Sure enough, they taxied out.  Unfortunately, they didn’t use the full length and went for an intersection take off.  I decided that, since it was hot and the haze was not great, I would go with video instead.  The result is below.  They spooled up the engines for quite a while before releasing the brakes.  I guess that is what you do when you have a development jet.