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Global 5000 Wins FAA Type Certificate
Bombardier Business Aircraft (Booth 13800) officials were all smiles Tuesday as they celebrated FAR Part 25 Type Certificate approval, having overcome the final major hurdle before customer deliveries begin in January 2005. Peter Edwards, BBA president, and Peter Boyd, BBA senior captain, symbolically "stamped" a placard with "FAA Certified" to mark the event.
Boyd and his crew flew the Global 5000 4,597 nmi from Dublin, Ireland, to Las Vegas on Monday in nine hours, 55 minutes, average 0.85 Mach, at altitudes from FL 430 to FL 470 with an average "fierce" headwind of 26 knots. The aircraft carried three passengers and 1,400 pounds of extra payload during the mission, landing in Las Vegas with "adequate reserves." In July, Boyd commanded a crew that flew 4,816 nmi from San Francisco to Farnborough in record time for this class of aircraft.
The Global 5000 will be on static display at Las Vegas Henderson with a full production interior and advanced Airshow 21 Cabin Electronics System. (A complete pilot report and analysis can be found in this month's issue of Business & Commercial Aviation [Booth 4801]).
Development of the Bombardier Enhanced Vision System (BEVS) is well under way, with flight tests slated to begin this month. Bombardier intends to pursue low-visibility approach credit, which could result in lower weather minimums of 100 feet/one-quarter mile on CAT I ILS approaches. BEVS will be an option on the Global 5000 and standard equipment on Global Express XRS.
Bombardier has continued to pursue product development during the recent lean sales years, now finding itself well positioned to deliver product. The firm delivered 62 business aircraft in the first half of 2004, claiming the Challenger 300 has accounted for 40 percent of all super-midsize sales and Learjet 40 pulling in a 26 percent share.
"But delivering top-notch customer support is our number one priority," Edwards said. Ready availability of spare parts is a "big issue" for customers. Parts fill rates have improved to 92 percent from 84 percent last year, and "a majority of AOG parts are delivered within 12 hours," according to Edwards.
Still, perceptions are what count most, so Edwards' team will focus on customer satisfaction follow-up as part of a four-way plan to make product support the best it can be. Bombardier is commencing 24/7 product support at its service centers and plans to add nearly 300,000 square feet of total hangar space at Clarksburg, W.V.; Dallas; and Teterboro. In addition, Duncan Aviation's Battle Creek facility now has been approved as a factory authorized service center for Learjets.
Caterpillar Logistics and Bombardier are building substantial warehouses in Chicago and Frankfurt. Expeditors International has been chosen to boost Bombardier's ability to track and distribute spares.
All these changes undoubtedly will improve product support. But old perceptions die hard in the business aircraft community, so the substantial investment Bombardier is making today may not pay off in winning product support market surveys for quite some time.
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