Dassault’s new jet unveiled in Paris
Dassault Aviation, which operates a business jet completion center at Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field in Little Rock, unveiled its newest aircraft Thursday.
The Falcon 10X is a twin-engine wide-body design that can compete in the ultra-long-range category of business aircraft that include the Gulfstream G700 and the Bombardier Global 7500. Those jets have a range of 7,500 miles with speeds of up to Mach 0.925.
“Today we are introducing a new benchmark in business aviation,” Eric Trappier, the Dassault chairman and chief executive officer, said during the virtual launch event at Le Bourget airport in Paris.
The 10X is expected to enter service in 2025, priced at $75 million.
In the announcement, Dassault also confirmed freshly manufactured 10X models will be flown to Little Rock to be finished to customer specifications at the company’s newest completion facility.
The announcement included footage inside the Little Rock facility where other Dassault models, including the 7X and 8X, already are being finished. Dassault Falcon Jet Corp., a Dassault subsidiary, has a workforce of 1,400, according to the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce.
— Noel Oman
Construction to start on state pellet plant
A British company said Thursday it will begin construction later this month on the first of three wood pellet plants in Arkansas.
The three plants will produce about 132,000 tons of pellets each year from sawdust.
Drax Group, based in the U.K., said the first plant will be built near a West Fraser sawmill in Leola, Grant County. Two more plants are expected to be built in rural locations in the coming months.
In a news release, Drax said it has agreed to invest $40 million in the state, creating 30 jobs. There will be a job fair at the Leola site later this month.
The company, which acquired 11 pellet plants in the U.S. and Canada last month, is working to reduce biomass costs in order to support its goal to be carbon negative by 2030.
This technology has the potential to remove millions of tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere while producing fuel for renewable electricity.
— Nathan Owens
Arkansas Index flat with 619.06 finish
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, closed Thursday at 619.06, down 0.21.
“Equities rose on expectations of a strong monthly payroll data report for April which is due to be released [this] morning as the financials and consumer staples sectors outperformed,” said Leon Lants, managing director at Stephens Inc.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.