Bombardier debuts Global 7000

At last year’s convention, a cabin mockup was at the static display. The airplane’s first flight was on Sept. 28. Like most new designs, the Global 7000 has had its share of ups and downs, but Senior Vice President of Global 7000 and 8000 Programs Michel Ouellette said solid progress is being made. So far, nearly 900 hours of flight testing have been performed. These included heat- and cold-soaking trials, polar flight to evaluate avionics performance, and validation of cabin comfort and ergonomics.

The Global 7000 is the biggest airplane in its class, Ouellette said, emphasizing its four cabin zones, 7,400-nautical-mile maximum range, and up to 0.925 Mach cruise speed. He said eight customer airplanes are currently on the final assembly line. Deliveries of the $72.8 million (base price) airplane are set to begin in the second half of 2018.

In other news, Bombardier introduced a new fixed-hourly-price maintenance program for its aircraft. Essentially a bolt-on to Bombardier’s long-standing Smart Parts program, the new Smart Services plan uses a fixed monthly billing rate to cover scheduled and unscheduled labor on landing gear overhauls, cabin components, and other systems.