With AIN Media Group's Aviation International News and its predecessor Aviation Convention News celebrating the company's 50th year of continuous publication this year, AIN’s editorial staff is going back through the archives each month to bring readers some interesting events that were covered over the past half-century.

REWIIND: (AIN January 1994 p.1) Bombardier’s board of directors officially launched the Canadair Global Express on December 20, igniting intense competition for a worldwide market whose size is still very much in question. The board’s decision followed three years of engineering research, market analyses, and soul searching by Canadair, manufacturer of the Challenger series of business jets.

FAST FORWARD: The Global Express was a direct competitor to Gulfstream’s GV in the then-new class of high-speed, ultra-long-range business jets. With its entry into service in 1999, a rivalry in the ultra-long-range space began that is still going strong nearly three decades later. The two airframers continue to raise the bar at the top end of their portfolios with Gulfstream’s G800 waiting in the wings as the G700 nears certification. Having delivered more than 1,000 Globals over the past 23 years, Bombardier earlier this year launched the Global 8000. As for the once-questioned size of the worldwide market, according to Honeywell’s latest forecast, the large and long-range jet categories will account for 70 percent of all new jet expenditures over the next decade.