cross section
Project definition After acquiring
Canadair along with its
Challenger 600 business jet in 1986, Bombardier studied a longer range
business aircraft 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. 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 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.
Launch and flight testing In October 1991, the Global Express was unveiled at the
National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) convention. In December 1993, the programme was launched. 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. By June 1995, the backlog was over 40 aircraft, sold out until 2000, leading to Bombardier to expand its early production plans. At launch, range was extended to to outdo rival
Gulfstream. Bombardier guaranteed the empty weight and range to reply to Gulfstream criticism. Around 100 sales were needed to cover the development costs. 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. By June 1996, the prototype was complete and conducting flight-readiness reviews ahead of its roll-out and first flight. 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 and . The flight test programme used four prototypes, accumulating 2,200 flight hours. The Bombardier Flight Test Center in
Wichita, Kansas was extended by for the test programme. In February 1997, the second prototype made its first flight and the third in May 1997. In late 1995,
type certification was forecast for March 1998. The first 15 aircraft were to be delivered before January 1999. The Global Express entered service in July 1999.
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. 2000 XP EFIS suite 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. 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. In May 2015, production was reduced because of lower demand, caused by slowing economy and geopolitics in Latin America, Russia and China markets. 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. The Global Express program cost $800 million. ==Design==