Dassault beats Falcon delivery target

Dassault Aviation delivered 49 Falcon business jets in 2017, up four aircraft from the 45 deliveries that it had forecast.

Gross order intake stood at 38 Falcon’s during the year. The figure includes 41 new orders, and three cancellations for the Falcon 5X.

The consolidated backlog, the number of aircraft still to be delivered, dropped by 11 Falcon’s from 63 aircraft, to 52.

Dassault formally cancelled the Falcon 5X in December 2017 after continued certification issues for the Safran Silvercrest engines that were due to power it.

The French manufacturer is now working on a replacement for the Falcon 5X, with new Pratt & Whitney PW800 series engines.