Sheldon, Iowa — What those at the Sheldon Regional Airport are calling possibly the largest aircraft to ever land at the airport was there for a few hours on Wednesday, March 6th, 2024.
Airport Manager Lyle Vust tells us he’s not sure who owns the aircraft, as the registration has just changed.
We are told the airplane is a Dassault Falcon 900 with a wingspan of 63 feet and a total length of 66 feet. To give us an idea of how big that is, a school bus is only 35 to 40 feet long. Vust says jets that normally land at Sheldon are Lear Jets and Cessna Citations, which hold roughly ten people. He says the Falcon is what they call a wide-cabin, that holds 14-16 passengers, plus crew. Vust says it’s “big enough for a flight attendant.” Another metric of size is weight. Vust says the aircraft that Midwest Flying Service uses are usually about 23,000 pounds. The Falcon is about 50,000 pounds, so that’s roughly double the size.
We are told it has three Honeywell TFE731-60 engines and an airspeed of 552 miles per hour.
Vust says he’s not sure specifically why they landed in Sheldon, except that they have business in the area.
We asked Vust if this is about the largest plane that could land at Sheldon. He says Sheldon’s runway is 4200 feet long and 75 feet wide, so it could accommodate even larger aircraft. But, he says, you don’t see those kind of aircraft very often in our area, as those cost in the neighborhood of 80 to 90 million dollars. He says if they did land at Sheldon, those type of aircraft could fuel up here and travel to Europe, nonstop.
Vust says the Falcon is the largest jet he has ever seen on the ground at the Sheldon Regional Airport in his over 30 years flying out of Sheldon.
