Down the line: business aircraft programmes in the works

As NBAA-BACE gets underway, FlightGlobal updates progress on new developments.

After a flurry of clean-sheet launches on either side of the pandemic, recent years have been quieter. However, four all-new business aircraft are undergoing certification campaigns: the ultra-long-range Dassault Falcon 10X, the super-midsize Gulfstream G300 and larger G400, and the Textron Beechcraft Denali single-engine turboprop. The other significant new aircraft in the works, the Honda Echelon light jet, is now likely to begin flight testing in 2028.

Textron has been among the busiest of the OEMs. As well as the Denali, the Wichita-based manufacturer has three updates to its Citation jet range in various stages of their certification campaigns: the M2 Gen3, CJ4 Gen3, and CJ4 Gen3. All three types feature Garmin’s emergency autoland technology. In addition, the CJ4 Gen3 has a Garmin G3000 Prime cockpit.

Meanwhile, the Daher TBM 980, Textron’s Citation Ascend and CJ3 Gen2, as well as the Embraer Phenom 300EV, Praetor 500E and 600E are among the variants to have been certificated in the past 12 months. All are revisions to successful existing aircraft or families, namely the TBM 960, the Citation XLS, the CJ3+, the Phenom 300E and original Praetor 500 and 600.

After lagging rivals Bombardier and Gulfstream in the ultra-long range, ultra-large cabin segment for years, Dassault must have hoped when it rolled out the 10X in March that it would have a chance at last to catch up with its Global 7500/8000 and G700/800 rivals. However, despite a first flight in June, a month later the company announced an up to two-year service-entry delay from its previous target of the final quarter of 2027.

Gulfstream flew the G400 for the first time in August 2024. Source: Gulfstream

Dassault, which began flying a second prototype in late September, is blaming a tougher regulatory environment in the wake of the Boeing Max crashes for the latest delay to the 7,500nm (13,900km)-range, Rolls-Royce Pearl 10X-powered jet, originally slated for service entry in 2025. “We have a completely new aircraft with new certification rules that did not apply on [Dassault’s previous programme] the 6X,” chief executive Eric Trappier said in July.

While Bombardier appears to be content with (or lack the resources to expand or refresh, for now) a range that comprises the Challenger 3500 and 650, as well as the Global 5500, 6500 and 7500/8000, its arch-rival Gulfstream’s developers have been active. Savannah followed up the 2021 joint announcement of the G800 (certificated in 2025) and G400 (whose certification appears imminent) with the launch in September last year of the G300.

The G300, which was announced in September 2025 and flew for the first time in December, will replace the G280 as the smallest aircraft in Gulfstream’s portfolio. Like its predecessor, it will be manufactured by Gulfstream’s long-running partner Israel Aerospace Industries in Tel Aviv, and powered by twin Honeywell HTF7250G turbofans, although there are a number of key differences between the designs.

Embraer secured certification for the Phenom 300EV in August. Source: Embraer

The G300 adopts the distinctive oval windows of the rest of the Gulfstream range, as well as a version of the Honeywell-supplied Harmony flightdeck. However, pilots will use standard yokes rather than the BAE Systems active-control sidesticks on other models. The aircraft, which will offer 3,600nm (6,670km) of range, is also 53cm (21in) longer than the G280. Gulfstream is aiming for a 2027 entry into service.

Meanwhile, certification for the 4,200nm-range G400 – a clean-sheet aircraft that completes a trio with the G500 and G600 as all three share a variant of the Pratt & Whitney Canada PW800 engine, a cross section, cockpit, and pilot rating – was originally pitched for 2025. The G400 flew for the first time in August 2024 and Gulfstream has been showing the aircraft to potential European customers this year.

Gulfstream began delivering the Rolls-Royce Pearl 700-powered G800 in August 2025, a few months before Bombardier with its rival flagship, the GE Aerospace Passport-equipped Global 8000. Both types vie to offer the longest range on the market, with the former delivering 8,200nm and the Bombardier jet 8,000nm, although the Canadian manufacturer claims its Mach 0.95-capable product is faster.

The biggest headache for Bombardier right now is not so much new programme development, but threatened sanctions from the Trump administration. A furious President on 7 September vowed on Truth Social to stop Bombardier selling jets in the USA – customers there make up about half its overall deliveries – unless it moved manufacturing there, accusing the Canadian manufacturer of treating the country like a “piggybank”.

That prompted a response from Bombardier that it is responsible for “tens of thousands of jobs” in the USA, including directly at its US hub in Wichita – where it was building Learjets until 2022 – its service centres and, indirectly, its extensive supply chain. It is also unclear under what legal mechanism the administration would enforce such a threat. In any case, not for the first time with a Trump outburst, nothing further appears to have transpired.

While Dassault and Daher would have been hit by an earlier Trump threat to impose punitive tariffs on European Union aircraft, it was Pilatus – based in non-EU member Switzerland – that this time last year was facing an uncertain future after the President proposed 39% tariffs on all Swiss products. Pilatus – which sells 40% of its PC-12s and PC-24s Stateside – halted US deliveries before a deal to return import taxes on aerospace products to zero.

Trump has always stated that the aim of his tariffs is less to generate income for the US Treasury as provide an impetus for foreign companies to invest in US manufacturing. Whether as a result of Trump 2.0’s tariff policy or something both manufacturers were planning anyway, both Pilatus and Daher have significant US industrial investments in the works.

Pilatus – which in September saw the Garmin Autoland function certificated for the latest version of its single turboprop, the PC-12 Pro – in April broke ground on a new customer delivery centre at its Broomfield, Colorado facility. Three months earlier, the Swiss company began construction of a services facility at Sarasota, Florida, which will eventually assemble PC-12s and PC-24s for the US market.

Meanwhile, Daher – which announced US and European certification for the sixth and latest version of its TBM 900 single turboprop family at the beginning of the year – aims to inaugurate its new assembly facility in Stuart, Florida next year. The site – next to an aerostructures plant the company acquired from Triumph in 2022 – will build TBM and sister brand Kodiak aircraft for the US market.

One foreign owned manufacturer that does not need to worry about the possibility of Trump import barriers is Embraer, which assembles its executive jets – the Phenom 100EV and Phenom 300EV light jets, the midsize Praetor 500E and super-midsize Praetor 600E – in Melbourne, Florida. The Brazilian company – which entered the business aviation market two decades ago – has also been busy updating its portfolio.

The Denali will debut the GE Aerospace Catalyst engine. Source: Textron Aviation

In August, Embraer secured certification for the Phenom 300EV as the third iteration of what has for 14 years been the best-selling light jet on the market, according to General Aviation Manufacturers Association figures. Slated to enter service in 2028, the Pratt & Whitney PW535-powered model will become the largest platform yet to be fitted with Garmin’s emergency autoland, one of several new safety features.

That followed certification earlier this year for the Pr

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