GE Aviation continues to provide support for Bombardier as the airframer counts down to certification on the recently renamed Global 7500. According to Shawn Warren, the engine manufacturer’s regional engines and services director for Bombardier programs, the company is continuing to build up hours on the Passport engine, which was certified in April 2016 and represents GE’s first purpose-built business aviation powerplant.
“We’ve talked about having 4,000 hours and 8,000 cycles by the time we get to entry-into-service,” he told AIN. “We’re right now around 4,700 cycles and about 3,600 hours but [are] continuing to run engines, so we do expect to be at that target by the time we get to EIS later this year.”
GE (Booth Z21) is currently ramping up Passport production at its facility in Strother, Kansas. While the location was initially tapped as an overhaul facility on the new engine, the decision was made to center production there as well.
“We’ve been moving more new production in the facility as well. For Passport, it’s great because it’s a one-stop shop,” said Warren. “One part of the plant is doing production, and the other part is setting up for overhaul, so they can go leverage expertise, people, and tooling—back-and-forth.” In addition to assembling units for Bombardier’s production line, the facility is at work developing a pool of lease units, as well as provisioning its service centers and its parts distributor Aviall.
The company already has an established global service network based on its earlier business avitation engines, which were borrowed from commerical programs. But with the extremely long legs of the Global, it expects to add to that network. “I think we’re expecting with the Global 7500, probably an even more global landscape of customers than we have today on the Challenger,” said Warren. “So we’re looking to continue to not just leverage that CF34 network, but also build out some new service centers as well.”
He noted that the company is currently evaluating the scope of work that makes sense for each location based on its capabilities. Lufthansa Technik was selected to provide mobile repair team support for the program in Europe, Russia, and the Middle East.
As for technical training, the initial classes at its Cincinnati headquarters have focused mainly on GE employees, but the company is now beginning to bring in customers and the service center employees. “We’ve got the training material ready and now it's just working through the schedules with the different folks to... bring them in as we progress forward,” said Warren.
While the company eagerly awaits the powerplant’s entry-into-service, Warren believes this is just the start of the program. “We continue to look for new opportunities to go find other applications for the Passport, wherever those may be.”
