Delivery of first set of Falcon 10X wing spars to Dassault Aviation

Early 2023, Aernnova Composites Illescas delivered to Dassault Aviation the first full set of wing spars for the new business jet Falcon 10X. These are the first wing spars manufactured with a press-forming process, with a complex geometry and large dimensions. Since then, additional shipsets continue to be manufactured and delivered, to serve for the first assembly, integration, ground, flight and mechanical testing required for the certification of the aircraft and its serial production.

The Falcon 10X is the latest and most advanced model of the Falcon business jet series from Dassault Aviation. It is a high speed and ultra long-range business jet with nearly 14000 km, allowing it to fly non-stop from Paris to Santiago de Chile. It also features the widest and tallest cabin in its sector. To achieve these capabilities, the latest technology is present in all different aspects of the aircraft, like the use of carbon fibre reinforced materials, to increase mechanical performance and drastically reduce weight, contributing to the speed, range and efficiency, making it one the most environmentally friendly aircrafts in its type.

Carbon fibre reinforced materials are widely used in the aerospace industry, with the key characteristic being their very high strength Vs weight properties, meaning a save in weight and therefore in fuel consumption. 

The use of composites is not new, with several manufacturing processes available depending on the characteristics of the element to be produced. However, this is the first time to produce wing spars with a press-forming process. 

During the past 5 years, Aernnova and Dassault Aviation have partnered to develop a new and improved press-forming process for the Falcon 10X wing spars. This new process is capable of forming spars with a complex geometry, aggressive shapes and wide range of thicknesses, all through an automated process that improves yield and reduces deviations and manufacturing time. All this for a composite material developed by Hexcel, with a very high viscosity, making it especially difficult to form by traditional processes. This is the culmination of a long Research and Development project in Aernnova of press forming technology, with an application to the Falcon 10X wing spars – that presents high lengths and varying widths, curvatures and thicknesses, among other characteristics to be considered.

The extensive experience in composites, technology and aerospace of Aernnova, together with the great effort and dedication put in, and the teamwork with Dassault Aviation experts, have yielded once again the successful completion of a project, with a new manufacturing technology for more complex parts, higher performance and higher rates.

This project has been a successful partnership opportunity to step forward and deep into the press-forming technology, and to work with the cutting-edge latest generation carbon fibre composite materials.

While current forming technologies is constrained to certain simple geometries and low to average viscosities, Aernnova has a commercial solution to form high viscosity materials to complex and more aggressive shapes, and with higher thicknesses.

The commercial application for this technology presents itself as a competitive advantage that puts Aernnova in a great position to lead the press-forming manufacturing technology for increasingly more demanding and complex parts, to higher rates. And this is not the last step, as more development in this field is taking place to continue to be at the forefront of the cutting-edge manufacturing technologies.