Dassault Mystere-Falcon 10/100

The baby of the Dassault Mystere-Falcon family of business jets, the Dassault Falcon 10 was known at first as the Minifalcon when announced at the end of the 1960s. Like the rest of the family it has rear-mounted turbofan engines and is basically a scaled-down version of the Mystere/Falcon 20, providing accommodation for a crew of two and up to seven passengers. A prototype (F-WFAL), powered originally by General Electric CJ610 turbojet engines, was flown for the first tirfie on 1 December 1970. Six months later it set a 1000km closed-circuit speed record for its class of 930.4km/h. A similar record over a 2000km closed circuit was established by the third prototype in May 1973, a month after the first production aircraft had flown.

In addition to the normal executive transport role, the Mystere/Falcon 10 can be equipped for aerial photography, ambulance duties, liaison, navigation/attack system training and radio navigation aid calibration. Several of these aircraft are operated by the Aeronavale under the designation Falcon 10MER. They are used in general communications and liaison duties, as well as to give training to pilots of the Dassault Super Etendard carrier-based fighter. The Aeronavale's aircraft serve with ES3 at Hyeres and ES57 at Landivisiau. In this last role the Falcon 10MER has been found to make a good mock intruder, used not only to train interceptor pilots but also ground control radar crews.

Introduced in 1985 to supersede the Falcon 10 and certificated in December 1986, the Series 100 featured increased weights (Ramp and Max. Take-off), a fourth cabin window on the starboard side, bigger luggage compartment and a 'glass cockpit'. When production ceased in 1989 223 Falcon 10/100s had been delivered to customers in 24 countries.