General Aviation Falcon 6X completes cold weather testing on route to certification

A team of engineers of Dassault Aviation and Pratt & Whitney Canada has successfully performed cold weather tests on the new Falcon 6X. With the completion of these tests, the company comes one step closer to aircraft certification.

Later this year, Dassault seeks to have the new flag-ship business jet certified. Until then, the manufacturer will perform further flight tests. These tests in temperatures as low as -37°C ensure that the engines and all systems are working well. The tests were conduced in Iqaluit, a tundra town in the far north of Canada.

Carlos Brana, Dassault Aviation’s Executive Vice President of Civil Aircraft, commented: “The Falcon 6X continues to impress us with its performance and reliability as we move through the certification process […] The aircraft operated flawlessly at the extreme temperatures an aircraft can be subjected to in the severest climate conditions. That includes engines, systems and low-temperature maintainability requirements.”

A major part of the cold weather tests were the soak trials, where the aircraft was cold soaked for three successive nights and subjected to different start sequences each morning, as the manufacturer revealed. Then, the engineers powered up the 6X and performed engine and taxi tests. Ground tests were connected with the validation of anti-icing systems.

In the air the handling qualities of the aircraft in extreme colds were tested at around 10,000 feet. In the air, the manufacturer was also able to check the stability of fuel and hydraulic fluid temperatures. In total, Dassault´s latest flagship endured 50 hours in the Arctic cold.

Now, the 6X has performed a total of 650 flight hours during more than 220 flights. As stated, the manufacturer seeks to achieve the type certification by the leading aviation authorities this year. The certificate allows Dassault Aviation to begin with customer deliveries.