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According to designers and engineers at Bombardier, "the Global family represents the upper end of the Bombardier Aerospace business jet product line". Global Express was officially launched in December 1993, and the first flight occurred in October 1996, after an investment of a billion dollars to develop. It was aimed at serving the interests of business travelers who wanted to travel non-stop in the New York-Tokyo route, whilst also reducing the Rome-Beijing route to a nonstop trip of less than 10 hours.
But the competition was fierce: Gulfstream, which was looking to develop a rival to the Global Express, placed an advertisement in the Wall Street Journal promising "$250,000 USD to any Global Express customers who canceled their contract and signed with Gulfstream". Nevertheless, Bombardier secured orders worth $900 million and is ahead with full-scale production. This is the story of the development of Global Express, the fountain from which aircraft such as the Global 5000, Global 6000, and the latest Global 8000- the aircraft that is set to be the fastest civilian plane since Concorde - sprang forth.
Designed to Meet the Transportation Needs of Business and Government Leaders
In the 1990s, the engineers working at Bombardier were tasked with developing a conceptual design for a newer, faster aircraft with a greater range. According to "The Bombardier Story" by Laurent McDonald, the Marketing team of the aerospace giant was working alongside the engineers, and relayed feedback from potential customers, highlighting that "corporate executives liked to trade up to larger business jets as their businesses grew, often keeping their smaller jets in order to have a diversified fleet":
The concept for Global Express had emerged from a study conducted in 1990, "to design a follow-on to the Challenger 600 Series with improved range and speed characteristics". Analysis had revealed that using the Challenger 600 Series as a baseline would deliver only limited gains at a relatively high cost. The Global Express's performance goals were demanding:
Long-Range requirement of over 6,500 nautical miles
The need for the largest cabin in the business-jet segment
High-speed cruise at Mach 0.85-0.88
Bombardier realized that if it were to keep fuel use to a minimum, it would require a more efficient engine and wing-to-fuselage configuration. Design investigations ensued, and so did simulations and wind tunnel tests. Finally, special design features helped Bombardier achieve the efficiency they were aiming for:
"Using CFD methods developed in-house over a period of 30 years, an advanced transonic wing design, characterized by a high sweep angle of 34°, an aspect ratio of 8.04 and providing higher aerodynamic efficiency at high lift coefficients, was achieved. This was coupled with a fully integrated propulsion system characterized by area ruling of the tail section, which delays formation of channel flow shock waves up to speeds of Mach 0.85."
A Nifty Solution for the $1 billion Production Cost
But the company assessed that it would require a billion dollars to come up with the aircraft and going through with the production would have been a hefty gamble, as there were no guarantees that the aircraft would succeed. Bombardier aimed to reduce the risks of developing new aircraft by sharing them through joint ventures. It sought partners in the aerospace industry willing to take part in the development effort and cover portions of engineering and tooling costs. These investments would then be recovered over time based on the number of aircraft sold. By mid-1993, Bombardier had secured a group of major risk-sharing partners to support the program:BMW Rolls-Royce GmbH: Selected to provide the engines.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries: Responsible for the center fuselage and wing structures.
Bombardier subsidiary Short Brothers: Production of the forward fuselage and tail sections.
Canadair's engineering teams: Acted as system integrators, ensuring all components worked together and overseeing final assembly.
Inching past the Gulfstream Threat
Around the same period, along came Gulfstream, the manufacturer of Gulfstream G650/G650ER and then dominant player in the business jet market, which announced plans to introduce a rival to the Global Express by 1996. A fundamental difference existed: Gulfstream planned to achieve this by stretching its largest existing model, while Bombardier pursued an all-new design. The intensity of the rivalry was documented by Larry in his history of Bombardier in the following manner:
" Harassed business executives joked that as a sales rep from one company was going out the back door, a rep from the other company was coming in the front. Even after they signed up with one of the manufacturers, that still did not stop the other side from knocking on their door, urging them to switch."
The author further pointed out that when Global Express advertised in the Wall Street Journal that despite coming later than its competitor, Gulfstream V, Bombardier's jet would offer a roomier cabin and more range at greater speeds:"Gulfstream countered with Wall Street Journal ads showing Global Express as a crumpled paper plane, with a caption stating that Canadair would still be making promises when Gulfstream was making airplanes. The ad also promised $250,000 USD to any Global Express customers who canceled their contract and signed with Gulfstream."
However, the customers of Bombardier remain unfazed and soon afterward, the company revealed it had locked in 30 firm orders, each valued at $30 million, making sure that the commitment was sufficient to move the program into full-scale production.
Automating the Design of Global Express
The Global Express was Bombardier's first program to move from concept to production, largely as a virtual aircraft - after all, the engineers had used 3D digital prototyping instead of traditional drawings and physical mock-ups.
This approach unlocked new efficiencies and economies of scale. At a time when many aerospace manufacturers were still using computers mainly as digital drafting tools, Bombardier pushed the technology much further. CATIA became the single controlling platform for the entire design and production process, ensuring that all teams worked from the same, constantly updated data. As a result, engineering tasks could be carried out concurrently rather than sequentially, replacing the slow handoff of repeatedly revised blueprints.
Key gains from this digital-first approach included:
A significant reduction in physical wind-tunnel testing, replaced by aerodynamic simulations run on a Cray supercomputer [though one would have to be wary not understand the word "supercomputer" in the "modern sense" as some analyses at Cray still required a full day of processing the codes].
A common CATIA interface that kept teams aligned, while allowing individual groups to continue using their own systems to design specific components.
Teams working on the project were "able to work concurrently rather than sequentially (as had been the case in the old days of handing off constantly altered blueprints down the chain of participants)."
Rolling out Five Years Earlier than Expected
The Global Express completed its first flight in 1996 and earned type certification from Transport Canada in 1998, staying fully on schedule throughout the program. At the certification ceremony, Bombardier highlighted that meeting a timeline set five years earlier reflected the expertise, commitment, and effort of both its employees and partner companies.
Some of its features included:
Nonstop Range: 12,000 km (6,500 nm), carrying eight passengers and a four-person crew
High-speed cruise: Up to Mach 0.88
Cabin: Approximately 20% larger than competing aircraft, divided into three zones: conference, office, and living areas
Advanced wing design enabling operations from some of the shortest runways in its class
Engineered to meet ETOPS requirements for long overwater missions.