A Falcon for the Ages

The Dassault Falcon is arguably one of the finest business jets the world has seen. And it all began with the Falcon 20 which celebrated its 60th birthday on May 4. A special report

"For an aircraft to fly well, it must be - beautiful, Marcel Dassault, the founder of Dassault Aviation famously said. Already well known for the sleek Mirage fighters, Dassault --the man and the company proved the adage once again on May 4, 1963, with the first flight of the Mystere 20, the company's first business jet. It was later renamed the Dassault Falcon 20.

With used prices that start as low as $176,000, the eight-to-nine passenger (executive) There are so many firsts that the Dassault Falcon 20 twinjet (FA-20) achieved that it calls it the greatest business jet ever built would perhaps be pretty appropriate.

• It was the first civil aircraft to fly on 100 per cent biofuel (2012)
• The first and only business jet to fly with an experimental afterburner (1988)
• First to flight test a composite wing (1985)
• And the launch fleet FedEx in 1973

Originally called the Mystere 20, the aircraft that was designed in 1961 to military specifications had its first fight on May 4, 1963. It was test-flown to Mach 1. Pan Am was initially the first to market the aircraft in North America, placing the first big order for 160 aircraft to be delivered between 1963 and 1968. Aviation legend Charles Lindbergh inspects the new aircraft on behalf of Pan Am on the day of the first flight soon after, Lindbergh told Pan Am CEO Juan Trippe: "I've found our bird." The airline ordered 160 of these planes to establish Pan Am Business Jets for its executive jet operations.

The launch aircraft took off from an airport in Bordeaux, under the command of test pilots Rene Bigand and Jean Dilliare "gave it the gas, as one historical account recalls, taking the aircraft that would be renamed the Falcon 20 for an inaugural one-hour flight.