Rolls-Royce has announced that its highly advanced Pearl 10X engines have successfully powered the first flight of Dassault Aviation’s brand-new flagship business jet, the Falcon 10X. The maiden flight took off from Dassault’s production facility in Mérignac near Bordeaux, France, signaling the official commencement of the aircraft’s comprehensive flight test programme and marking a pivotal milestone toward its final entry into service.

Over the coming months, both the airframe and the powerplants will undergo a rigorous series of operational tests designed to gather critical aerodynamic and performance data necessary for final type certification. The Pearl 10X stands as the newest and most powerful variant within the state-of-the-art Pearl propulsion family and represents a historic milestone as the first Rolls-Royce engine selected to power a Dassault Aviation business jet.

“We congratulate the Dassault team on this important milestone,” said Philipp Zeller, Senior Vice President Dassault, Business Aviation at Rolls-Royce. “Seeing the Falcon 10X taking off for the first time, powered by our Pearl 10X engines, makes all of us at Rolls‑Royce proud and serves as yet another testament to our market-leading position in the strategically important ultra- and very-long-range business aviation market.”

Prior to this maiden flight, the Pearl 10X engine underwent an extensive development and validation programme across both ground and airborne environments. The overarching testing framework has accumulated more than 4,000 operational hours across the Advance2 core demonstrator and the definitive Pearl 10X configuration. This included a dedicated six-month flight test campaign utilizing Rolls-Royce’s modified Boeing 747 flying testbed. Over the course of more than 25 specialized test flights, the engine covered a total distance of 36,000 nautical miles, an operational distance equivalent to circumnavigating the globe one and a half times.

Engineered for optimal performance, the Pearl 10X utilizes the ultra-efficient Advance2 engine core and pairs it with a high-performance low-pressure system to deliver a superior thrust output exceeding 18,000 pounds of force. The engine incorporates an innovative ultra-low emissions additive layer manufacturing (ALM) combustor that is fully compatible with 100% Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). Additionally, it features a newly engineered accessory gearbox designed to accommodate significantly higher electrical power extraction for the aircraft’s advanced cabin systems.

The resulting propulsion system offers a market-leading combination of raw power and thermal efficiency. This capability will provide corporate customers and private operators with premium short-field airport accessibility alongside the capacity to execute ultra-long-range global connections while traveling close to the speed of sound.