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Aviation History
1996
1996 - 3069.PDF
CORPORATE AVIATION Global adventure Bombardier's Global Express is the largest-purpose-designed business jet GRAHAM WARWICK/MONTREAL CUTAWAY DRAWING BY TIM HALL/LONDON WHEN BOMBARDIER conceived the Global Express, it "...wanted to put a stake in the ground beyond anything that existed". As flight-testing of the ultra-long-range business jet gets under way, the Canadian manufacturer remains confident that its aircraft offers an unrivalled combination of comfort and performance at a competitive price. Three design objectives shaped the Global Express: performance, cabin comfort and relia bility. The performance goals set were chal lenging, particularly the requirement to com bine long range and high speed with good low-speed characteristics for short-field capa bility. Bombardier's desire to offer the largest business-jet cabin available only made the per formance goals more challenging, while the requirement for airliner reliability drove system redundancy to new levels for business aircraft. One more objective shaped the overall pro gramme: Bombardier's need to spread the cost of developing the Global Express across its own divisions and other aerospace companies. As a result, half of the C$800 million ($600 million) development cost is carried by Bombardier and the rest by nine risk-sharing partners. This required a lengthy joint-definition phase, dur ing which the participants agreed the interfaces between their parts of the aircraft before begin ning detailed design. Bombardier's view of the ultra-long-range market has changed little since "Project Global Express" was unveiled in 1991. The range goal then was 9,2 50km (5,000nm) atMach 0.85, with eight passengers and four crew, but this was increased to accommodate the market-defining city pair of New York-Tokyo, and is now Corporate aviation has never seen anything quite like Bombardier's Global Express —the aircraft or the programme. 12,000km at M0.8. This translates into 11,700km atM0.85 and the original 9,2 50km at the aircraft's M0.88 high-speed cruise. Market studies showed that the increasing globalisation of business, and growing dissatis faction with airline service, would drive the need for long-range corporate aircraft. The Global Express was conceived to link businesses in North America with the Far East, Middle East and South America; Europe with the Far East and South Africa; and vice versa—all with secure non-stop service under the owner's control. LONG-RANGE CONFIDENCE "Our confidence in the market for ultra-long- range aircraft continues," says John Lawson, president of Bombardier's Canadair Business Aircraft division. The company's estimate of the ultra-long-range marketis still for 500-800 air craft over the next 15 years, he says. The programme is based on selling 250 air craft, with the break-even point at around 100, and production of two a month over the life of the programme — a production rate which is now achieved with the Canadair Challenger. By the roll-out on 26 August, the company had 53 firm orders for the $34 million aircraft. More than half of the orders have been placed by international customers, with slightly less than half from the traditionally dominant North American market. Customers include operators of other manufacturers' large busi ness-jets, with the Global Express orderbook containing more operators of the Gulfstream TV than of the Challenger, Lawson claims. Bombardier Aerospace executive vice-presi dent of engineering, John Holding ,says that the design objectives of the Global Express (offi cially designated the BD 700) were to provide "the longest range at the highest speed from the shortest runways of any available or planned business jet". Take-off field length at the 41,280kg maximum take-off weight is 1,550m (5,100ft); landing distance at the 3 5,650kg max imum landing weight is 780m. The key to combining a maximum operating Mach number of 0.9 with an approach speed of 125kt (230km/h) lies in the wing. The Global Express is an all-new design: the aircraft has the same 2.7m fuselage cross-section as that of the Challenger, and the same 14.6m cabin length as that of the Canadair Regional Jet. The architec tures of many systems are based on those used successfully on both, but the wing is all-new. The wing is sized by the need to house fuel for the 12,000km design mission; shaped by the desire to cruise virtually shock-free at M0.85; and equipped with high-lift devices to provide what Holding describes as "superb low-speed handling characteristics". The result is a super critical wing with 28.5m span, 3 5°sweep, lead ing-edge slats-and winglets. Bombardier describes the wing as "third- generation supercritical". Its first such wing was designed for the Challenger, and improved for the Regional Jet. The Global Express wing is the result of some 100 design iterations using computational fluid-dynamics (CFD). Over • FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 20 - 26 November 1996 57
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