NYC to London: Dassault’s 7X races against the clock
NYC to London: Dassault’s 7X races against the clock
How do you show the world just how fast a Dassault Falcon 7X business jet is, and how aircraft like them can free time in a working day? You set a record, that’s how.
Since the demise of Concorde and its 3hr 30min Transatlantic flight times, the quickest way to get from the two financial capitals of Wall Street, NYC, and the City of London has been by business jet, utilising their sheer speed and even more so their point-to-point strengths.
From street to street, the quickest way we know of is to hop in a cab from Wall St, get west a short distance to Teterboro in New Jersey — closer than JFK — and on to a waiting jet. While the flight time will always be longer than Concorde, Dassault’s 7X can take you right into the heart of London to City Airport, just minutes from the financial district. No long queues at passport and customs, and no long journeys to JFK or from Heathrow.
Compared to a current airliner, the door to door time saving can run into several hours and could even rival the best that used to be achievable in the supersonic jet. If only we could still do a back to back test!
Flying the Mach 0.90 7X was two of the French manufacturer’s top men: Chief Test Pilot Philippe Deleume and Olivier Froment. Facing them was the lottery of weather conditions, ATC routing, and then the challenge of City Airport itself, one of the strictest runways in the world thanks to its steep approach requirements and open only to jets with the required authorisations to operate at such strips.
Their goal was to set a FAI world record time between Teterboro and London City. Could they do it? We went along for the ride…
