Businessman, engineer, photographer, pilot and deputy of the French National Assembly Olivier Dassault embodies the highest French values. This means that personalising his new Falcon 900EX called for a prestigious exterior design that would represent the famous name of Dassault as well as the French nation.

Through previous works, essays and sketches, Happy Design Studio founder and designer Didier Wolff knew exactly what he wanted to achieve. Inspired by Olivier Dassault's spirit, the emblematic design represents both his fame and successes in civil and military aviation, along with French Republican values.

Dassault added his own specific request for Captain Guynemer's famous motto to appear on the livery: 'Faire face'. Guynemer was a bold aviator, a famous fighter pilot who fell in action in 1917, and whose name was given to the first class of the French Air Force Academy (created in 1935) from which Olivier Dassault graduated with honours. The tradition continues, and each class that graduates is named after an elder with an exemplary career.

At the crossroads of business and military aviation, the tricolour livery named Thermidor refers to the 11th month of the French Republican calendar - 'from the heat, both solar and terrestrial, that ignites the air from July to August' - and was given to the new design as reference to the extreme weather conditions during which the livery was painted.

As a background, the fuselage is painted with four subtle gray shades that fade across the airframe. The darkest of them, meteor, rushes to the engines and returns to the landing gears after veering elegantly around the last window. Playing with contrasts, the rings with George Guynemer's famous motto near the engine's air intakes, the Dassault logo on the vertical stabiliser, the registration number, and even the name of the owner at the right side of the door, sit alongside unobtrusively.

As a reference to the French Republic, blue, white and red stripes appears on both sides of the aircraft's radome and thicken as they cover the aircraft's back. Placed between the grays, they literally lighten the entire livery.

As a wink to Olivier Dassault's French deputy mandate, this aircraft becomes an ambassador of both the Dassault company and France abroad.

Because of the symbolic significance of this image, it was painted at Le Bourget by Satys under the supervision of Dassault Falcon Services and Didier Wolff himself. It took 2,600 man hours over no fewer than five weeks to flawlessly paint the demanding and detailed livery.