Bombardier Global Express
The Bombardier Global Express is a large cabin, long-range business jet designed and manufactured by Bombardier Aviation. Announced in October 1991, it first flew in October 1996, received its Canadian type certification in July 1998 and entered service in July 1999. Initially powered by two BMW/Rolls-Royce BR710s, it shares its fuselage cross section with the Canadair Regional Jet and Challenger 600 with a new wing and tail.
The shorter range Global 5000 is slightly smaller. The XRS is an improved version of the Global Express and the Global 6000 is an upgrade to the XRS that replaces the older avionics. The longer range Global 5500/6500 are powered by new Rolls-Royce Pearl engines with lower fuel burn and were unveiled in May 2018. The larger and stretched Global 7500/8000 have longer ranges.
Project definition
After acquiring Canadair along with its Challenger 600 business jet in 1986, Bombardier studied a longer range business aircraft[3] in which it aimed to carry eight passengers and four crew over 12,000 km (6,500 nmi) at Mach 0.85. To meet this goal, a joint-definition team was established at the company's Montreal facility in the early 1990s. By 1994, the team comprised 200 engineers, evenly divided between Canadair and various partners, including Japanese company Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Anglo-German engine manufacturer BMW Rolls-Royce.[4]
These partners independently designed their own elements of the aircraft and shared a stake in the program. The choice of suppliers influenced the aircraft design, with its various systems being selected before the detailed design phase. The CATIA CAD software was used for the kinematics, to feed finite-element analysis software for structural design, and computational fluid dynamics software for aerodynamics, the latter being confirmed by wind tunnel testing.[4]
The new aircraft was designed to use the minimum number of components while still ensuring that no single failure would result in a diversion or the inability to dispatch a flight. Bombardier worked towards a 99.5% dispatch reliability goal. As operators sought a level of safety enjoyed by airline aircraft, Bombardier was influenced to use ETOPS design rules, such as the incorporation of a maintenance computer to detect, indicate, and isolate faults, although ETOPS rules were not a design requirement. A conventional mechanical flight control system was selected in the new aircraft design instead of fly-by-wire. This was mainly due to the high development expense and customer apprehension of fly-by-wire.[4][5]
Launch and flight testing
In October 1991, the Global Express was unveiled at the NBAA convention.[6] In December 1993, the programme was launched.[7] In June 1994, its high-speed configuration was frozen while the low-speed configuration was established in August 1994. By then, most critical design decisions were taken and almost all suppliers had been selected.[4] In January 1995, the definition phase was winding down before detailed design.[8]
By June 1995, the backlog was over 40 aircraft, sold out until 2000, leading to Bombardier to expand its early production plans.[9][10] At launch, range was extended to 12,000 km (6,500 nmi) to outdo rival Gulfstream.[11] Bombardier guaranteed the empty weight and range to reply to Gulfstream criticism.[12][13] Around 100 sales were needed to cover the development costs.[14] In October 1995, the first prototype manufacture began. The first sections were expected in December at de Havilland's in Toronto, with final assembly to start in March 1996.[15][16] By June 1996, the prototype was complete and conducting flight-readiness reviews ahead of its roll-out and first flight.[17][18]
On 13 October 1996, the first prototype performed its maiden flight from Toronto, one month later than planned, lasting for 2 hours 46 minutes and attaining 11,000 ft (3,350 m) and 210 kn (390 km/h).[13][19] The flight test programme used four prototypes, accumulating 2,200 flight hours. The Bombardier Flight Test Center in Wichita, Kansas was extended by 9,100 m2 (100,000 ft2) for the test programme.[20] In February 1997, the second prototype made its first flight and the third in May 1997.[21][22]
In late 1995, type certification was forecast for March 1998.[13] In July 1998, Canadian type certification was granted. European and US approvals followed shortly thereafter.[23][24] The first 15 aircraft were to be delivered before January 1999.[25] The Global Express entered service in July 1999.[1]
Production
Since 2023, the Global Express has been assembled at the Toronto Pearson International Airport in Mississauga, Ontario, and formerly at Downsview Airport in Toronto.[26]
Since 2012, Japanese aerospace firm Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has built the wing and centre fuselage sections at its Toronto facility located east of the airport on Northwest Drive, and formerly at 2025 Meadowvale Boulevard from 2007 to 2012.[27][28] Bombardier subsidiaries involved are Canadair as the design leader and nose manufacturer; Short Brothers in Belfast for the engine nacelles design and manufacture, horizontal stabiliser and forward fuselage; and de Havilland Canada for the rear fuselage, vertical tail and final assembly. The landing gear is produced by Dowty, flight controls by Sextant Avionique, the fuel system by Parker Bertea Aerospace, the core avionics by Honeywell, the APU by AlliedSignal, the electrical system by Lucas Aerospace, and the air management system by ABG-Semca.[4][29][30]
In May 2015, production was reduced because of lower demand, caused by slowing economy and geopolitics in Latin America, Russia and China markets.[31] By October 2018, Bombardier had a backlog of 202 aircraft valued at C$14.1 billion ($11 billion), including 128 Global Express aircraft: 67 Global 5000/6000 and four Global 5500/6500.[32] The Global Express program cost $800 million.[33]
Design
The Global Express is a high speed business/corporate aircraft with a range of 6,500 nmi (12,000 km) at Mach 0.80 (459 kn; 850 km/h),[34] a 51,000 ft (16,000 m) service ceiling and a 14 hours endurance. The semi monocoque airframe is made of lightweight aluminum alloys and composite materials. It has a low wing, tricycle landing gear and fuselage-mounted engines. [35]
The clean-sheet design draws upon the earlier Canadair CL-600 and Bombardier CRJ.[4] It shares its fuselage cross-section with these aircraft, paired with a new T-tail and wing. The latter is a supercritical airfoil with a 35° wing sweep and winglets.[33] This flexible wing naturally attenuates turbulence.[36] It was initially powered by two BMW-Rolls-Royce BR710 turbofans controlled by FADEC. The flightdeck features a six screen Honeywell Primus 2000XP EFIS suite.[33]
The Global Express was the business jet with the largest cabin,[4] until being surpassed by the later Gulfstream G650.[36] It can accommodate 12 to 16 passengers in three cabin sections: mostly a forward four-chair club section, a central four-seat conference grouping and an aft three-place divan facing two chairs. Most have a forward galley, crew rest chair and crew lavatory. The 10.3-psi cabin pressurization maintains a 4,500-ft. cabin altitude up to FL 450 and 5,680 ft. at the FL 510 ceiling.[36] The cabin has an unobstructed length of 14.6 m (48 ft) while the floor is dropped by 51 mm (2.0 in) from the Challenger to increase width at shoulder level, while the windows have been repositioned and enlarged by 25%.[4]
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