Falcon 900EX EASy Loses Weight While Gaining Seats With Creative Customization

After a reconfiguration by Duncan Aviation, this Falcon 900EX EASy can comfortably carry 17 passengers and actually weighs less than it did before. Click image for high-res download.

LINCOLN, NEB — Duncan Aviation faced a challenge to significantly reduce the overall weight of a customer’s Falcon 900EX EASy aircraft while increasing passenger capacity.

During a pre-buy inspection at Duncan Aviation’s MRO facility in Battle Creek, Michigan, a customer requested his 14-seat Falcon 900EX EASy be reconfigured to sit 17 comfortably. He also wanted the aircraft’s overall weight to drop so future round-trip flights could be completed with no fuel stops.

The final design, created by Duncan Aviation Aircraft Designer Ken Reita, required an STC (Supplemental Type Certificate) and the expert help of several others to complete. Reita and Senior Duncan Aviation Completions Sales Rep Suzanne Hawes met daily with team members from Engineering, Airframe, Interior, and Customer Service to discuss ideas and compare notes.

“We regularly updated detailed spreadsheets with the weight of every single item, including coffee containers and life rafts, on that aircraft. We even took out the carpet and weighed it!” says Hawes. “We pored over that interior, coming up with savings, ounce by ounce.”

The team switched out the seat and divan frames for lighter alternatives, removed a pocket door, installed thinner carpet, and replaced the stone countertops in the galley cabinet with sleek, lightweight laminate. They also saved 50 pounds by swapping out the insulation in the headliner.

The team ultimately fit 17 seats comfortably in the cabin and shaved 374 pounds from the aircraft’s weight!

In addition to the pre-buy and complicated reconfiguration, Duncan Aviation performed an airframe 2-C inspection, EASy II avionics upgrade, and complete paint.

About Duncan Aviation

Duncan Aviation is an aircraft service provider supporting the aviation needs of business aircraft operators, government agencies, and other aircraft service providers. Services include major and minor airframe inspections, engine maintenance, major retrofits for cabin and cockpit avionics systems, full paint and interior services, engineering and certification services, fabrication and manufacturing services, and preowned aircraft sales and acquisitions. Duncan Aviation also has international aircraft components solutions experts available 24/7/365 at +1 402.475.4125 who can handle any aircraft system problem with immediate exchanges, rotables, loaners or avionics/instrument/accessory repairs and overhauls. Complete service facilities are located in Battle Creek, Michigan; Lincoln, Nebraska; and Provo, Utah. We also have dozens of other facilities strategically located throughout the United States to provide customers with scheduled regional support and the quickest response possible to avionics, engine and airframe Aircraft On Ground (AOG) situations.

For more information about any of Duncan Aviation’s services, call +1 402.475.2611 or visit https://www.DuncanAviation.aero/services