Bombardier Aerospace’s fifth flight-test Global 7000 is prepping for first flight as the manufacturer continues on the path toward certification next year. The fourth flight-test vehicle (FTV4) began flying on September 28, less than a year after the initial flight of FTV1 on Nov. 4, 2016. Since then, the Global 7000 test program has amassed more than 1,000 flight hours, the company said.

Bombardier in November indicated it was ramping up production with “multiple” customer airplanes in production at the company’s Toronto factory. The Canadian aircraft manufacturer is expected to further detail its progress on Thursday during an investor’s meeting in New York.

But as the program has continued to check off milestones, the airframer is asking for certain exemptions for both the Global 7000 and 8000. Recent requests to the FAA applied to the requirements surrounding the automatic deployment of oxygen dispensing units and uncontrollable high thrust (UHT).

In the case of oxygen-dispensing units, Bombardier has asked that, during high-altitude airport operations, the supplemental-oxygen dispensing units automatically present to occupants before the cabin pressure altitude exceeds 17,000 feet. Current regulations require that they deploy at 15,000 feet. Since the installed passenger oxygen control panel is designed to deploy the units at 14,500 plus or minus 500 feet during normal operations, Bombardier expressed concern that variations in barometric pressure at high-altitude airport operations can exceed 14,000 feet and cause automatic deployment. Inadvertent deployment would unnecessarily alarm passengers and increase maintenance costs, Bombardier added.

In the case of UHT, Bombardier is seeking an exemption from requirements surrounding protections from potential throttle quadrant assembly (TQA) failures that involve an UHT event. Bombardier believes relief from regulations is appropriate because the scenarios involved in such cases are “extremely improbable.” Bombardier said a precedent exists for the exemption and expressed concern that the requirements could force a redesign of the TQA, which is common to that already in use on the Global 5000 and 6000.