The world’s fastest and longest-range private jet will soon roll off the assembly line at Toronto Pearson Airport in Mississauga. Bombardier’s new flagship Global 8000 aircraft, on schedule to take to the skies in 2025, is “steadily progressing through final assembly” at the Montreal-based company’s new $670-million state-of-the-art business jet manufacturing plant at Canada’s biggest and busiest airport (see first video below). “This impressive aircraft will be the fastest and longest-range purpose-built business aircraft ever built and its rare combination of innovation, performance and comfort will allow our customers to reach new heights in their business aviation experience,” Stephen McCullough, Bombardier’s senior vice-president, engineering and product development, said in a news release. He added the Global 8000 also “possesses outstanding short-field capabilities, with the ability to access smaller airports other aircraft in its category can’t access.” At $78 million apiece and with room for 19 passengers, the Global 8000 will whisk passengers around the world at a speed approaching the speed of sound and greater than that of any other private jet currently in the skies. The Global 8000 will fly at a top operating speed of Mach .94 (about 1,160 km/h). Mach 1, the speed of sound, translates to 1,234 km/h. During a test flight in May 2021 observed by a NASA-operated Boeing F-18 fighter, the new Bombardier private jet broke the sound barrier when it recorded a speed of Mach 1.015, or 1,243 km/h (see video below). Featuring a range of 14,816 kilometres (9,206 miles or 8,000 nautical miles), the Global 8000 will also take passengers farther than any other business jet once it takes to the air. A nonstop flight from Dubai to Houston, or Singapore to Los Angeles, or London to Perth is no problem for this aircraft, its builders say. Additionally, because of its unique takeoff and landing capabilities, the Global 8000 can take off from and land safely at smaller airstrips that will get passengers closer to their destination. “The Global 8000 private jet is the flagship for a new era where the fastest speed, the longest range and the smoothest ride converge in a single business aircraft with proven reliability and the healthiest, best-connected cabin in the industry,” Bombardier officials said in an earlier online description of the new jet. Online aviation firm Simple Flying recently listed the fastest private jets in the world. By comparison, the world’s fastest commercial planes check in at maximum speeds of about Mach .85, or 1,049 km/h. Bombardier officials noted this week that as the Global 8000 manufacturing process ramps up, the company’s Flight Test Centre in Wichita, Kansas recently put the flight test aircraft through its paces. Flying test missions to Europe, the Global 8000 showcased “its outstanding performance attributes in real-world functional operating conditions” and it drew “rave reviews from test pilots,” the company said. Bombardier’s 770,000-sq.-ft. Global Manufacturing Centre, the largest standalone structure to be built at Pearson Airport in more than 20 years, according to airport officials, began operating at full capacity in early 2024 and replaced the former final assembly plant in Downsview.
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