Falcon 7X serial number 02 has completed five days of cold soak trials at Iqaluit and Resolute Bay in northern Canada. Dassault says that temperatures during the tests reached as low as -33oC during the campaign that ran from April 6 to April 10. All aircraft systems performed as designed.

The aircraft performed high-speed taxi and aborted take-off tests on the gravel and packed ice runway and made several landings in 20 plus knot crosswind conditions. The tests also proved aircraft systems functionality under extreme weather conditions, including all avionics installed on the EASy flight deck, electrical, hydraulic and fly-by-wire systems.

"Despite the brutal weather conditions that included a blizzard during the third day of testing, the Falcon 7X performed very well," said Bill Kerherve, senior chief test pilot for Dassault Aviation. "We had no problems in starting or warming the aircraft.

"All systems and avionics came online very quickly after start-up. Performance of the Pratt & Whitney Canada 307A engines was excellent," he added.

To date, the Falcon 7X test programme has accumulated 540 flight test hours from 172 flights. The entire flight test programme will last approximately 1,200 hours. Final certification is expected in early 2007, with deliveries commencing shortly after.