Aircraft
Dassault rethinks super-midsize jet
Dassault Aviation CEO Charles Edelstenne in June made it clear that all design choices for the manufacturer’s next Falcon business jet, a super-midsize air

Dassault Aviation CEO Charles Edelstenne in June made it clear that all design choices for the manufacturer’s next Falcon business jet, a super-midsize aircraft codenamed SMS, have been reopened–including the engine. This gives engine makers–notably Snecma, which has been trying to find an application for its first business jet turbofan–a new opportunity to compete for the project.

Dassault in 2007 selected Rolls-Royce to supply 10,000-pound-thrust-class RB282s for the SMS. It now appears that even such a key decision is being questioned.
During a press conference at the company’s headquarters in Saint-Cloud, near Paris, Edelstenne said, “We saw we had not met our [economic and technical] goals. Therefore, I elected to prolong Phase A [of our design process] to the end of the year. Everything is open, including the choice of the engine.”