15 May 1965

Jacqueline Auriol steps off the Dassault Aviation Mystère-Falcon 20.

15 May 1965: At Istres, France, Mme Jacqueline Marie-Thérèse Suzanne Douet Auriol set a Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) World Record for Speed Over a Closed Circuit of 2 000 Kilometers Without Payload.¹

The prototype Dassault Aviation Mystère-Falcon 20, F-WLKB.(Dassault Aviation)

She was flying the prototype Dassault Aviation Mystère-Falcon 20, F-WLKB, powered by two General Electric CF-700 turbofan engines.

Dassault Aviation Mystère-Falcon 20 F-WLKB. (Dassault Aviation)

¹ FAI Record File Number 9073

© 2023, Bryan R. Swopes

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4 thoughts on “15 May 1965

  1. I wonder if anyone could comment on the different engine configurations shown in the two photos. The outer cowling on a CF-700 slides rearward under certain conditions?

    1. I believe the first photo shows the initial cowling design for the rear-fan CF 700 engine.

      The second photo shows the cowling design that was used on production Falcon 20 aircraft.

    2. Full disclosure: I don’t know for sure.
      A little research reveals that the original engine used was a GE CF700 which had a turbofan on the aft end of the engine. I suspect the second photo is an early cowling configuration that had a smaller diameter cowling on the forward portion of the turbine and a second, larger diameter cowling to direct the flow past the turbofan at the aft end. The later configuration seen below in almost all photos is a single cowling. This cowling inlet ingests the air for the turbine and the turbofan. The splitter can be seen in the 3rd photo. The dual cowling was probably a prototype configuration. The single cowling, I suspect, was found to be a more efficient design and was used for the production aircraft. I don’t think the cowling was ‘reconfigurable’.

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