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Photos from Bombardier X (formerly Twitter)Bombardier CEO Eric Martel gave the public a sneak peek inside the new hub in Mississauga, Ontario, marking a major step in the path to the official inauguration. The facility will be the new manufacturing hub for the Global series and focus on sustainable operation and state-of-the-art design.
The company showed CBC Toronto a glimpse of the new $670 million assembly plant. Bombardier announced that the new, 770,000-square-foot facility at the Pearson Airport would be the new home for the Global Manufacturing Center in 2019. The Downsview plant, currently located in Downsview, Ontario, was built in the 1960s and will transition to the new facility. The new hub will provide continued employment to the 2,000 employees currently working at the Downsview facility. Bombardier told CBC Toronto the new facility is the most advanced private jet manufacturing facility in the world.The tour of the plant
The new plant was built to operate efficiently and sustainably. At the Mississauga plant, energy consumption will drop by just under 60 percent by focusing on natural and efficient lighting elements, new heating methods and updated processing systems to lower greenhouse gas emissions by more than half. Bombardier said the facility will use less water by utilizing modifications implemented in the processing shop workflow. Electric vehicles will be used for onsite transportation and three SAF tanks will be there to provide fuel for the departing aircraft.
The transition from Downsview to the new site began last summer and is due to be completed later this year, according to CBC Toronto. Most of the production work and roughly 1,200 of the 2,000 staff in Downsview have moved to the new site.
"It's not something you can do over the weekend," said Mark Masluch, Bombardier's senior director of public relations to CBC Toronto during the tour.
The Pearson location will assemble the Global 6500 and Global 7500 jets. CBC Toronto said the 17 production stations at the plant work on the different stages of completion from the fuselage tube on the wing assembly to the stabilizers, landing gear and engines. The facility also includes hangar space for pre-flight activities. The plant has the capacity to build up to 100 aircraft per year.