TYPE
Transcontinental range mid to large size corporate jet
PERFORMANCE
Max cruising speed at 39,000ft Mach 0.83-0.85. Max certificated
altitude 47,000ft. Range at 0.80 Mach cruising speed with eight
passengers 5560km (3000nm), at 0.75 Mach 5788km (3125nm).
CAPACITY
Flightcrew of two. Main cabin seating typically for eight passengers,
or up to 12 in a high density layout
GENERAL
INFORMATION
The
Falcon 2000 is the latest member of the Falcon business jet line,
and is a transcontinental range, slightly smaller development of
the Falcon 900 trijet The Falcon 2000 shares the 900's wing and
forward fuselage, but there are a number of design changes. From
the start the Falcon 2000 was designed with a range of 5560km (3000nm)
in mind, which is less than the
transcontinental 900's range. This design range removed the need
for the redundancy of three engines for long range overwater flights,
allowing the two new CFE738 engines to be fitted, which offer considerable
maintenance and operating
economics benefits.
Another noticeable
design change between the 900 and 2000 is the area ruled rear fuselage.
Dassault engineers found that the three engine layout of the 900
to be aerodynamically efficient, whereas the twin engine design
of the 2000 originally would have been comparatively draggy. To
combat this and reduce drag to desired levels Dassault designed
an area ruled (or Coke
bottle) rear fuselage, using its Catia three dimensional computer
aided design program.
Changes to the
wing include a modified leading edge and the inboard slats have
been removed, while the cockpit features a Collins four screen EFIS
avionics system with optional Flight Dynamics head-up displays (allowing
hand flown approaches in Cat II and Cat IIIa conditions).
Dassault has
a number of industry partners in the Falcon 2000 program, foremost
of these being Alenia, which is a 25% risk sharing partner. Alenia
in turn has subcontracted some work to Dee Howard and Piaggio. Dassault
announced it was developing the Falcon 2000, then known as the Falcon
X, in June 1989. First flight occurred on March 4 1993 and certification
was awarded in November 1994. The first customer delivery occurred
in March 1995.