Aviation360 MEA

Bombardier said on Monday at EBACE 2023 that the first Global 8000 that had been fully configured had taken flight for the first time last week. The aircraft, which was earlier designated FTV-5 in the Global 7500 program and which shared a structure with the supersonic flight-testing phase of the Global 8000, has been designated FTV-1 in the latter. The large-cabin twinjet successfully completed more than seven hours of flight testing on its first day of full configuration, demonstrating the maturity of the program.

Bombardier’s senior vice president of engineering and product development, Stephen McCullough, praised it for its excellence. “This aircraft has the highest Mmo in the sector at Mach 0.94. The highest in our industry, this aircraft can travel 8,000 nautical miles, he claimed. The Global 8000 will have the lowest cabin altitude in the industry—2,900 feet—when flying at 41,000 feet, according to McCullough, for the comfort of its passengers.

The Global 8000, which was unveiled at EBACE last year, is the same size as its 7500-sized sibling. It has a four-zone cabin and the option for an executive cabin, both of which were introduced during NBAA-BACE last year. The range improvements in the 8000 come largely from an optimization of the empty weight and the resultant ability to carry more fuel in the existing tanks.

The OEM is anticipating certification for the 8000 in the second half of 2025. At that point, Bombardier will issue an optional service bulletin for the 7500 that will allow it to be retrofitted with the 8000’s performance enhancements. Downtime needed for the retrofit is expected to be less than a week.