Global 5000 Final Test Aircraft Maiden Flight…
Jan. 8 marked the first flight of Bombardier’s second test copy of its new Global 5000, the company’s ultra-long-range business jet. The four-hour local flight from Downsview, Ontario, served as a shakedown prior to the plane’s planned delivery to the Bombardier Completion Centre in Montreal this month to install a production interior. Flight testing for environmental control system validation and interior function and reliability will begin as soon as the interior installation is complete. It will then join the first aircraft as part of the two-ship flight test program. “Over the next few months, it will be used to validate our interior engineering and manufacturing processes. Each interior system will also undergo ground endurance testing to replicate the expected cycles on the aircraft,” said Robert Duffield, director of the Global 5000 program at Bombardier Aerospace. The Global 500 program was begun in February 2002. The certified aircraft is expected to be capable of flying nonstop from continental Europe to central North America at Mach 0.85 with eight passengers and three crewmembers.
