Business Aviation: October 2008 Archives

A Bombardier testbed aircraft equipped entirely with an all-electric braking system has executed its first flight. Bombardier's Global 5000 flying testbed aircraft was modified by removing its hydraulically actuated brake-by-wire control system and replacing it with Meggitt's EBrake suite.

Check out the full story here. Key info from my conversation with Bombardier:

Although the manufacturer used the Global 5000 for the test, it does not plan to equip its business jets with an all-electric braking system. Rather, Bombardier believes the technology is more applicable to commercial aircraft, says a spokesman for the company.

Bombardier has said it intends to use electric brakes on its 110/130-seat CSeries aircraft. However, it has not confirmed if it will choose Meggitt's system, notes the spokesman.

Bombardier executives are headed to Hyderabad Airport for the inaugural India Aviation 2008 exhibition, which gets kicked off on 15 October.

The event, organized by India's Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry, is being billed as "the first international exhibition of its kind in India on civil aviation sector".

But that's not stopping Bombardier from flogging its business jet portfolio. While the airframer is bringing a CRJ900 NextGen commercial jet for static display, it will also showcase its Learjet 60 XR, Challenger 605 and Global Express XRS business jets.

What about the CSeries cabin mockup? Will it be on display? I know I was quizzical in June when Bombardier opted not to showcase the CSeries mockup at Turkey's AIREX. At that time, a Bombardier spokesman told me it was "too heavy and expensive" to lug to AIREX.

The CSeries mockup is not mentioned in Bombardier's press release about the show, although Bombardier Commercial Aircraft VP sales for the Asia-Pacific market Trung Ngo suggests the 110/130-seater is ideally suited for longer routes in the Indian market.

It seems to me that India would be a good place to bring the mock-up, no? As the SBAC points out, in a statement to promote the event, the Indian civil aviation market has been experiencing a boon. "Until recently only two private airlines - Jet Airways and Air Sahara offered competition to national carriers, but in the last few years, a large number of private airlines such as Air Deccan, SpiceJet, Kingfisher Airlines, Go Air, Paramount, Indigo etc. have entered the domestic market," notes the SBAC.

"With air travel becoming a popular and cheaper option, the civil aviation sector is experiencing fast growth.  During 2006-07, total passenger traffic grew at 27.2% while the cargo traffic grew by 11.2%. The aircraft movement increased by 27.5% during the year.  The domestic air traffic is expected to grow up to 180 million and international traffic to 50 million passengers by 2020."

No doubt Bombardier will have some cabin pics to show attendees, perhaps from its newly-released CSeries promotional DVD (which I picked up at the Boyd conference). See some of the best snaps below.