A 100% French engine for the new Falcon – Les Echos

+ VIDEO The latest Dassault Aviation will be the only Falcon with a motor designed and manufactured in France by Safran-Snecma.

Of all passenger commercial aircraft, the Falcon 5X is without any doubt the most French of all. The latest Dassault Aviation has not only been designed and assembled in France, like all the brand appliances, but it will be the only engine with 100% French. Namely the Silvercrest Snecma, whose stake is far from negligible for the Safran Group, which has invested over 600 million euros in its design.

Developed since 2008, the new engine should indeed allow the French engine manufacturer to gain a foothold in the market for business jets, of which he was previously absent, with the promise of a fuel consumption saving of 15% and a halving of emissions by half the emissions of greenhouse gases, compared to current engines. Besides Dassault Aviation, American Cessna also chose to power its future Silvercrest business jet Citation Longitude, expected around 2018. But it is the Falcon 5X will be the first to fly with the new French engine. What enjoy additional competitive advantage

Several months late

Only downside:. Development Silvercrest took several months late. Certification expected before the end of 2015 is now postponed to summer 2016, “at the latest” , says Cédric Goubet, the director of the Commercial Engines of Snecma.

Delays that have nothing unusual for a program of this complexity, but that may refer to as the certification of the Falcon 5X, originally scheduled for summer 2016 even if the first test flight is still scheduled for this summer. “We took six to eight-month delay in the initiation of the flying test bed , explains Cédric Goubet. We had underestimated the difficulty of adapting the engine on the Gulfstream used for testing. We also met a problem with the thermal regulator [engine cooling system, Ed], that has forced us to redo the casting. But despite these difficulties, we have already accumulated 2,500 hours of ground testing and more than 200 hours in flight, and all major testing should be completed before the end of the year “ he assures

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Other aircraft manufacturers interested

Furthermore, c ontrary the engines of airliners like CFM, for which the industrial ramp is a challenge, the Silvercrest industrialization phase should not be a difficulty news. At the rate of a few dozen copies a year, production volumes remain modest. At least initially, because the prospects are broad Silvercrest. In addition Cessna, scheduled for 2017, other aircraft manufacturers would be interested in the French engine, which long remain the only new engine business aviation.

Bruno Trévidic