Dassault Aviation Unveils the Falcon 10X

Dassault Aviation has officially unveiled the Falcon 10X, its new ultra-long-range business jet, before an audience of more than 400 customers, partners, and aviation industry figures assembled in a purpose-built production hall at Bordeaux-Mérignac, France, on 10 March 2026. The rollout, which took place at 8:00 p.m. CET, marks the public debut of an aircraft that has been in development for several years and represents the top of the current Falcon range.

The Falcon 10X is built around the premise that the cabin environment of a long-range business aircraft should impose as few constraints on its occupants as possible — on space, on air quality, on light, and on flexibility of use. The engineering decisions that follow from that premise are significant, touching the airframe, propulsion, avionics, and flight control systems in ways that distinguish the 10X from its predecessors and, in several respects, from anything currently available in the segment.

“The objective is to allow passengers to experience time on board the aircraft as just another part of their everyday life, not as a long interval between origin and destination. So they arrive feeling refreshed and at their very best. Dassault Falcons have always been at the vanguard of business aviation and the 10X is no exception, embodying the very best technology available today. From the user perspective, the equation is simple: an objectively better experience.”

Eric Trappier, President and CEO of Dassault Aviation

The most immediately apparent characteristic of the Falcon 10X is the size of its cabin. At 9 feet 1 inch wide (2.77 m) and 6 feet 8 inches tall (2.03 m), it is dimensionally comparable to some regional jet cabins — and is eight inches wider and two inches taller than what Dassault identifies as its nearest competitor in the ultra-long-range category. That additional cross-section has practical consequences: it allows interior designers and completion centres to configure spaces that do not require the kind of compromises typically associated with aircraft interiors.

The cabin can be arranged in three or four zones, with options including full-size bedrooms, dedicated dining areas, Falcon Privacy Suites, and shower installations. The degree of customisation available is broadly consistent with what the market has come to expect at this level, but the underlying volume that makes it possible is meaningfully greater.

Natural light has been addressed through 38 extra-large windows — approximately 50% larger than those fitted to the Falcon 8X — running the length of the new fuselage. The cabin pressure system maintains an equivalent altitude of 3,000 feet at a cruising altitude of 41,000 feet, which is notably lower than the 6,000-8,000 feet that represents the norm in business aviation and is associated with reduced passenger fatigue on long sectors. One hundred percent of cabin air is continuously refreshed rather than recirculated, and temperature zones are individually adjustable throughout the cabin.

The Falcon 10X has a published maximum range of 7,500 nautical miles and a top speed of Mach 0.925. At that range, the aircraft is capable of operating non-stop on routes such as New York to Shanghai, Los Angeles to Sydney, São Paulo to Dubai, and Beijing to Paris — city pairs that currently require a stop in most business jet types. The combination of range and speed is made possible in part by the aircraft’s all-composite wing, which Dassault describes as the first of its kind in business aviation.

The wing retains conventional high-lift devices — slats and flaps — but its composite architecture reduces weight while improving aerodynamic efficiency. Dassault states that this structure allows the 10X to support its large fuselage cross-section without sacrificing the short-field performance and operational flexibility that the Falcon line has historically been noted for.

Power is provided by the Rolls-Royce Pearl 10X, a new engine developed specifically for the aircraft. The Pearl 10X is built around the Advance2 core — a high-efficiency architecture that Rolls-Royce describes as the most efficient core currently available in business aviation — mated to a high-performance low-pressure system. The result is a thrust rating in excess of 18,000 lb, with what Rolls-Royce characterises as strong noise and emissions performance relative to existing engines in the class.

“Today is a very special day for Rolls-Royce and the team. We are excited and proud to deliver the thrust for this extraordinary aircraft, and I would like to congratulate the Dassault family as well as the Falcon team on this special occasion.”

Dr. Dirk Geisinger, Director of Business Aviation at Rolls-Royce

The Falcon 10X introduces the NeXus cockpit, a new flight deck developed by Dassault for the aircraft. The system integrates large touchscreen displays with automation tools designed to reduce crew workload — particularly during high-workload phases of flight such as instrument approaches in poor visibility, or departure and arrival procedures in noise-sensitive environments.

A dual FalconEye Enhanced Vision System is fitted as standard. FalconEye combines synthetic and enhanced vision data to provide crews with situational awareness in conditions where natural visibility is degraded, and the system has been updated for the 10X with capabilities specifically targeted at complex manoeuvres such as night circling approaches.

The flight control system in the Falcon 10X is the third generation of Dassault’s digital fly-by-wire architecture in a business aircraft — a lineage that began with the Falcon 7X in 2007. The current implementation is integrated with a Smart Throttle, a single-lever engine management control whose design is informed by the throttle systems of the Rafale combat aircraft. Through this interface, the flight control computers manage both engines simultaneously while assisting crews with procedures including noise-abatement climbs and stabilised go-arounds. The system also enables what Dassault describes as the first automatic recovery mode in a large business jet — a function that intervenes to return the aircraft to normal flight parameters in the event of an unusual attitude or approach to the edge of the flight envelope.

Dassault’s position as the only manufacturer producing both front-line military aircraft and business jets — a distinction it maintains in the Falcon 10X’s engineering documentation — has historically allowed the company to apply flight control and avionics technology developed for defence applications to its civil aircraft programmes. The Smart Throttle and the third-generation fly-by-wire system are the most visible expressions of that in the 10X.

The Bordeaux-Mérignac rollout is a production milestone rather than a flight milestone. The Falcon 10X has not yet flown, and the programme now moves into a flight test campaign that will evaluate performance across the aircraft’s full operating envelope before it enters service. No specific timeline for entry into service was announced at the rollout event.

The Falcon 10X sits at the top of a range that currently includes the Falcon 6X, 8X, and 2000 series. It is aimed at operators who require non-stop range on the longest intercontinental routes, maximum cabin volume, and the level of technical sophistication that Dassault’s military-derived engineering capability makes possible. Moving forward, how the aircraft performs during flight testing — and how the certification process unfolds — will determine when that potential translates into operational reality.

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Photos by Dassault Aviation

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