Bombardier is finalizing its flight-test campaign for the Global 8000 and has moved toward validation and demonstration flights, including a trip this week to Salzburg, Austria. The flight and operations validation comes as Bombardier is eyeing entry into service of the 8,000-nm aircraft, which has been tested beyond the sound barrier, later this year.
But at the same time, the trials provided an opportunity for the Montreal-headquartered airframer to showcase the aircraft to the pilot community and “business jet enthusiasts.” Last year, the company metered its sales efforts for the aircraft—along with an associated retrofit for its predecessor Global 7500—to ensure that it maintained a reasonable order book timeline and was able to honor commitments.
During the company’s year-end results call, Bombardier executive v-p and CFO Bart Demosky explained to analysts that Bombardier took fewer deposits as part of a “risk-management strategy that we deployed throughout the year…we took a conservative approach to selling our Global 8000s to keep a buffer on availability just in case we encountered any of the similar challenges some of our peers have had as they’ve been bringing aircraft or derivatives into service.”
That said, the company said the aircraft continues to draw interest and remains on track for service entry by yea-end. In addition, Bombardier is finalizing a $3 million upgrade kit that will bring the 7,700-nm, Mach 0.925 Global 7500 in line with the Global 8000’s performance. The company estimates that the upgrade would require about 14 days of downtime.
With a cabin altitude of 2,900 feet at 41,000 feet, the 8,000-nm, Mach 0.94 Global can connect Salzburg to Perth, Australia, or to Santiago, Chile.
Following its operations in Europe, the flight test vehicle returned to the Bombardier Flight Test Center in Wichita.