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Dassault Falcon 50

The enlarged, three-engined version of the Falcon 20 is called the Falcon 50. The third engine is placed in the rear fuselage, with an S-shaped duct leading to the air intake on top of the fuselage, in front of the tail. Unlike the Falcon 20 the horizontal stabiliser has anhedral instead of dihedral. The Falcon 50 has the same large oval cabin windows as the Falcon 20, in contrast to the Falcon 900s and 7X/8X with smaller windows.

Note: Aviation Partners winglets were certificated in 2012 and are available on all Falcon 50 versions. There is no change in the designations.

Typical Dassault Falcon style cockpit windows on the Falcon 50. Also note the large oval cabin windows.

Falcon 50

The base variant is called just Falcon 50. It is powered by Honeywell TFE731-3-1C engines and has an optional auxiliary power unit (APU). The exhaust of this is visible on the right side of the fuselage, behind the righthand engine.

In Italian military service the Falcon 50 is designated as VC-50A.

Falcon 50

Falcon 50-4

After the introduction of the Falcon 50EX, see below, not only the Falcon 50-40 was offered as a conversion programme for early-model Falcon 50s, but also the Falcon 50-4. This features TFE731-4 engines in the place of the original TFE731-3s. This means however no changes visible on the outside...

Falcon 50EX & Falcon 50-40

The Falcon 50EX is a modernized Falcon 50, amongst others with new engines and avionics. Unfortunately, these fit into the same nacelles, so you see nothing of this. Furthermore an APU installed as standard equipment and there are changes to the rudder control system.

Newly-built aircraft are known as Falcon 50EX. At Honeywell, you can have your old Falcon 50 equipped with the engines and avionics of the Falcon 50EX, and then you get a Falcon 50-40 (with 40 coming from the TFE731-40 engines). Again you cannot recognise anything.

Falcon 50EX

Confusion possible with

Dassault Falcon 900

falcon 900

The Falcon 900 is also a tri-jet Dassault style, but is clearly different because it has a wider fuselage with more and smaller cabin windows. This also applies to the Falcon 7X and 8X, by the way. 

Dassault Falcon 20

falcon 20e

Especially when you only see the front of the aircraft you might mistake a Falcon 50 for a Falcon 20. However, in normal cases the third, centre engine is an easy recognition point.