A contract for nearly $33 million has been awarded to Kinco Contractors LLC of Little Rock to build a 14-bay hangar for Dassault Falcon Jet Corp.'s completions center at the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field.
The company unveiled the Falcon 5X in October and announced it would expand and revamp its facilities, primarily because of the new, larger 5X, with a 5,200-nautical-mile range.
Now the 250,000-square-foot hangar, which should be completed by December, also will finish the company's latest model, the Falcon 8X.
The plane maker announced recently that its newest plane will have an even longer range than the 5X -- 6,450 nautical miles.
"The Falcon 8X will be our new flagship and a great complement to our product line," Chairman and Chief Executive Eric Trappier said in a prepared statement.
"With two new aircraft in development ... Dassault will now be able to offer a family of six jets designed to meet the widest possible range of operator needs at the upper end of the business jet spectrum," Trappier said.
Richard Aboulafia, an analyst with the Teal Group of Fairfax, Va., said that the 8X is slightly more expensive plane and a "fairly modest upgrade" from the 5X, but that it spreads the risk for the company by offering another model and "shows a commitment to the product."
"They're trying to move upmarket as quickly as possible."
The latest news bodes well for the employees, who finish out the planes after they are flown from France, where the 8X already is at an advanced stage of production at Bordeaux-Merignac, according to the company release.
The workforce at the Little Rock plant numbered between 1,800 and 1,900 earlier this year.
Robert Smith, senior vice president of business development, said in March that the company expects to increase its output by 40 percent after the $65 million expansion of the completions center is finished by the end of 2015.
The rest of the $65 million will be for realigning the existing plant and re-equipping it.
Smith said the company would hire more people for the Little Rock facility, but declined to say how many.
The state approved an incentives package that included a 3.9 percent cash rebate for 420 jobs created by the expansion or retained for at least 10 years.
The 8X will be powered by an improved version of the Pratt and Whitney Canada PW307 engine that equips the Falcon 7X. Combined with improvements to wing design, the new engine will make the 8X up to 35 percent more fuel efficient than any other aircraft in the ultra-long range segment, the company said.
The 8X, with the capacity for eight passengers, will be slightly longer and sleeker than the 5X, and have a top speed of 614 miles per hour.
Business on 06/07/2014