The Dassault Falcon 900, commonly abbreviated as the F900, is a French-built corporate

trijet A trijet is a jet aircraft powered by three jet engines. In general, passenger airline trijets are considered to be second-generation jet airliners, due to their innovative engine locations, in addition to the advancement of turbofan technology. ...

aircraft made by

Dassault Aviation Dassault Aviation SA () is a French Aerospace manufacturer, manufacturer of military aircraft and business jets. It was founded in 1929 by Marcel Dassault, Marcel Bloch as Société des Avions Marcel Bloch (Marcel Bloch Aircraft Company). After ...

Development

The Falcon 900 is a development of the

Falcon 50 The Dassault Falcon 50 is a French super-midsize, long-range business jet, featuring a trijet layout with an S-duct air intake for the central engine. It has the same fuselage cross-section and similar capacity as the earlier twin-engined Dassau ...

, itself a development of the earlier

Falcon 20 The Dassault Falcon 20 is a French business jet developed and manufactured by Dassault Aviation. The first business jet developed by the firm, it became the first of a family of business jets to be produced under the same name; of these, both t ...

. The Falcon 900 airframe design incorporates

composite material A composite or composite material (also composition material) is a material which is produced from two or more constituent materials. These constituent materials have notably dissimilar chemical or physical properties and are merged to create a ...

s. Other models include the Falcon 900-B, featuring an increased range, and the Falcon 900EX featuring other improvements in engines and range and an all- glass flight deck. The Falcon 900C is a companion to the Falcon 900EX and replaces the Falcon 900B. Later versions are the Falcon 900EX EASy, and the Falcon 900DX. At EBACE 2008, Dassault announced another development of the 900 series: the Falcon 900LX, incorporating high mach blended

winglets Wingtip devices are intended to improve the efficiency of fixed-wing aircraft by reducing drag. Although there are several types of wing tip devices which function in different manners, their intended effect is always to reduce an aircraft ...

Operational service

In France, the Falcon 900 is used by the Transport Squadron 60 (Transportation, Training and Calibration Squadron 65), which is in charge of transportation for officials in France.

Variants

; :Announced in 1984, original production. Powered by three

Garrett TFE731 The Garrett TFE731 (now Honeywell TFE731) is a family of geared turbofan engines commonly used on business jet aircraft. Garrett AiResearch originally designed and built the engine, which due to mergers was later produced by AlliedSignal and no ...

-5AR-1C

turbofan A turbofan or fanjet is a type of airbreathing jet engine that is widely used in aircraft engine, aircraft propulsion. The word "turbofan" is a combination of references to the preceding generation engine technology of the turbojet and the add ...

jet engines.Taylor 1988, p.77. It was certified in 1986 by French and U.S. aviation authorities. ;Falcon 900 MSA :Maritime patrol version for

Japan Coast Guard The is the coast guard responsible for the protection of the Geography of Japan#Composition, topography and geography, coastline of Japan under the oversight of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. It consists of about ...

; this variant is equipped with search radar and a hatch for dropping rescue stores. ;Falcon 900B :Revised production version from 1991, powered by TFE731-5BR-1C engines. ;Falcon 900C :Replacement for 900B, introduced in 2000. ; :Long range version with engines; this variant features TFE731-60 engines, with a range of . Avionics by

Honeywell Primus Honeywell Primus is a range of Electronic Flight Instrument System (EFIS) glass cockpits manufactured by Honeywell Aerospace. Each system is composed of multiple display units used as primary flight display and multi-function display. Primus ...

. It entered service in 1996. ;Falcon 900EX EASy :Long range version produced from 2004 to 2009; fitted with Honeywell / Dassault Primus Epic EASy avionics. TFE731-60 engines. ;Falcon 900DX :Shorter-range production type with TFE731-60 engines. ;Falcon 900LX :Current production variant of EX fitted with blended winglets; range of . ;Envoy IV :

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

military designation for the 900LX. ;VC-900A :Italian military designation for the 900EX. ;VC-900B :Italian military designation for the 900EX EASy.

Operators

Civil operators

A wide range of private owners, businesses, and small airlines operate Falcon 900s.

Military operators

Former operators

Accidents and incidents

*On 14 September 1999, Olympic Airways Flight 3838, a Falcon 900B (registered SX-ECH) operating for the

Hellenic Air Force The Hellenic Air Force (HAF; , sometimes abbreviated as ΠΑ) is the air force of Greece (''Hellenic'' being the endonym for ''Greek'' in the Greek language). It is considered to be one of the largest air forces in NATO, and is globally placed 1 ...

by Olympic Airways, was descending to land at

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

, Romania, when the

autopilot An autopilot is a system used to control the path of a vehicle without requiring constant manual control by a human operator. Autopilots do not replace human operators. Instead, the autopilot assists the operator's control of the vehicle, allow ...

disengaged and several

pilot-induced oscillation Pilot-induced oscillations (PIOs), as defined by MIL-HDBK-1797A, are ''sustained or uncontrollable oscillations resulting from efforts of the pilot to control the aircraft''. They occur when the aviator, pilot of an aircraft inadvertently comman ...

s occurred. The impact of unfastened passengers with the cabin and aircraft furniture resulted in fatal injuries to seven passengers, serious injuries to two, and minor to another two. Among the victims was Giannos Kranidiotis, then deputy foreign minister for Greece. *On 13 February 2021, a Falcon 900EX corporate jet (N823RC) experienced a landing gear collapse after an aborted takeoff at Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport, California. Although the aircraft sustained significant damage, all five occupants on board escaped without injuries. The flight crew explained that during the takeoff attempt, the captain applied back pressure to the control yoke, but the nose failed to rotate to a takeoff position. After multiple attempts, the captain decided to reject the takeoff by reducing thrust and applying maximum brakes. As a result, the aircraft overshot the runway and the landing gear collapsed upon reaching a gravel pad. The

NTSB The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and inc ...

investigation revealed that the captain did not possess a valid pilot certificate due to an emergency revocation by the FAA two years earlier. This revocation occurred because the captain had falsified logbook entries and records for pilot proficiency checks, competency checks, and training events while serving as a check pilot for a Part 135 operator.

Specifications (Falcon 900B)

References

External links

Dassault Falcon 900 pageAirliners.net aircraft data sheet
{{Spanish transport aircraft Falcon 0900 1980s French business aircraft Low-wing aircraft Trijets Cruciform tail aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1984 Aircraft with retractable tricycle landing gear