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Bombardier unveils Global
5500 and 6500 family
IN A surprise announcement
on May 27, 2018, Bombardier
Business Aircraft unveiled not
one, but two new variants of the
Global family of business jets, the
Global 5500 and 6500.
The announcement was
timed to coincide with the 2018
European Business Aviation
Convention and Exhibition, held inGeneva between May 29 and 31.
Global 5500 and Global 6500
aircraft are powered by purpose-
developed Rolls-Royce Pearl
engines and feature a redesigned
wing, which Bombardier says
will deliver ranges of 5,700 and
6,600 nautical miles (10,550 and
12,225km) respectively, and with a
maximum speed of Mach 0.90.The company says the Global
5500 will connect city pairs
such as São Paulo and Paris, and
Moscow and Los Angeles. Similarly,
it says the Global 6500 will be
capable of connecting Hong Kong
or Singapore with London.
The two aircraft will feature
Bombardier’s recently launched
Nuage cabin seats and the
company’s Vision flight deck,
which it says will introduce the
“first true combined vision system”
that merges enhanced and
synthetic images into a single view
for presentation to the pilots.
David Coleal, President of
Bombardier Business Aircraft,
said: “Bombardier’s two newest
Global aircraft are the result of
our unrelenting commitment
to innovation, excellence and,
most of all, our desire to deliver
unmatched capabilities to our
customers... This next generation
of performance stems from the
winning DNA of our Global family
of aircraft, now further enhancedthrough a newly optimised wing,
a fully reimagined cabin and new,
purpose-built engines.”
The Pearl engine combines
technologies developed through
the company’s Advance2
Technology Demonstrator
programmes with the proven
features of the existing BR700
family of engines. The engine is
rated at up to 15,125lb (67.29kN)
of thrust (at ISA+15), which is a 9%
increase over the BR700 at take-
off thrust, but will be 2dB quieter
and deliver a 7% improvement in
specific fuel consumption.
Developed at Rolls-Royce’s
Centre of Excellence for
Business Aviation engines in
Dahlewitz, Germany, the Pearl
engine has already completed
a comprehensive development
programme and was granted
European Aviation Safety Agency
certification on February 28, 2018.
It is now undergoing flight testing
at Bombardier’s Flight Test Centre
in Wichita, Kansas.Rolls-Royce has developed the Pearl engine rated at 15,100lb thrust specifically for the Global 5500 and 6500. Rolls-RoyceBombardier Business Aircraft President and CEO David Coleal with the Global 6500.
Bombardier