A couple of weeks before the National Business Aviation Association convention, at a gathering of journalists in Paris, French aircraft manufacturer Dassault launched its latest jet, the Falcon 5X, a twinjet. The project had been known as the SMS, though Dassault had never officially revealed any details of the program. The 5X, a 69,500-pound large-body bizjet, now occupies a peculiar place in the Falcon lineup. It is a rung below the flagship Falcon 7X, a tri-jet and the first fly-by-wire bizjet. The 7X was launched at the Paris Air Show in 2005 and earned certification in 2007.
But in many ways, the 5X is more airplane than its larger, longer-range and more expensive hangar mate. It has a better cabin, more efficient engines, more advanced avionics and a far more sophisticated digital flight control system.
