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After logging more than 3,400 test hours on the Pearl 10X and its related Advance2 core demonstrator, Rolls-Royce says it is nearing finalizing certification tests for the engine that will power Dassault’s Falcon 10X ultra-long-range business jet.
Updating progress at the EBACE 2025 business aviation show in Geneva, the engine-maker says key certification tests successfully completed include initial maintenance interval, engine type test, medium bird strike, outdoor crosswind and emissions.
Flight tests of the engine were also completed on the company’s Boeing 747-200 flying testbed last October, following a campaign which logged 2,300 hr. at speeds up to 0.9 Mach and altitudes up to 45,000 ft. Rolls-Royce adds only one major unspecified certification test remains to be passed.
Phillip Zeller, senior vice president at Rolls-Royce, says, “As we approach the final certification tasks, we are confident the Pearl 10X will meet the highest standards of performance, efficiency and reliability, ensuring it is the perfect fit for Dassault’s Falcon 10X.”
Selected by Dassault in 2021, the Pearl 10X made its first run in 2022 and is due to enter service on the new aircraft in late 2027.
Featuring a blisked titanium fan and four-stage low-pressure turbine, the engine’s high-pressure compressor incorporates six stages of titanium blisks while the two-stage turbine is shroudless.
Additive layer-manufactured tiles are also incorporated into the engine’s low-emissions combustor. Rolls-Royce is thought to have now built at least three ground test and certification engines in the program, as well as the two flight test units, both of which have been refurbished for the upcoming Falcon 10X flight-test program.
Separately, Rolls-Royce has announced a major production milestone with the delivery of the 9,000th engine, a Pearl 700, from its Dahlewitz site in Germany. Delivered to Gulfstream Aerospace in Savannah, Georgia, the engine is part of an increased production ramp-up for the Pearl 700, which received FAA approval (as the BR700-730) for the Gulfstream G700 and G800 ultra-long-range business aircraft in September 2023. Developed like the Pearl 10X at Dahlewitz, the Pearl 700 also incorporates the Advance2 engine core with a new low-pressure system.
First deliveries of the Pearl 700-powered Gulfstream G700 began to Qatar Executive in April 2024, while deliveries of the initial G800 are expected to begin imminently following FAA and EASA certification received this April. The G800 replaces the BR725-powered G650, production of which ended in February 2024 with the completion of the 598th aircraft. Rolls-Royce marked the delivery of the 1,000th BR725 to Gulfstream for the G650 production line in September 2022.
Since the start of engine production in June 1995, the Dahlewitz facility has become the group’s Center of Excellence for two-shaft engines, employing about 2,400 people from over 60 nations. Other engines built in the facility aside from Pearl 10X and Pearl 700 include the Pearl 15, BR710, BR715, BR725, Tay 611-8/-8C, V2500 and Trent XWB-84. Over 6,100 of these engines are powering business jet platforms, the company says.
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