Dassault has secured European and US certification for its bespoke combined enhanced and synthetic vision system (SVS), dubbed FalconEye, on board Falcon 2000S/LXS business jets. Similar approval on the flagship 8X is expected shortly.

The validations follow a two-year development effort involving both flight and simulator testing.

FalconEye was unveiled in November 2015 as an option on the Falcon trio, and more than 90% of 8X customers have so far selected the feature, says Dassault.

The system is designed, the airframer says, to raise situational awareness in a range of weather and operating conditions, by day or night. The head-up display (HUD) system combines synthetic, database-driven terrain mapping and thermal and low-light camera images into a single view.

FalconEye incorporates a fourth-generation multi-sensor camera that provides high-definition images close to the quality of a military forward-looking infrared sensor. In synthetic vision mode, the camera displays an extended 30 x 40° field of view, to avoid tunnel vision.

Philippe Rebourg, Dassault Aviation test pilot and head of the certification flight campaign, says the FalconEye’s SVS function “will provide a level of vision quality comparable to that of the most sophisticated fighter HUDs". This offers what he describes as “a substantial improvement in situational awareness and flight safety”.

“The EVS function will eventually provide operational credits for bad weather approaches with 100ft minimums, providing operators with a substantial operational benefit as well,” Rebourg says.

Dassault plans to certificate the system for single- and dual-HUD configurations on the ultra-long-range 8X, with approvals scheduled “in the coming weeks” and during 2018, respectively.

The company is also considering offering the FalconEye as an option on its large-cabin 900LX.