The first fully-configured Global 8000 made its inaugural flight last week, Bombardier announced on Monday at EBACE 2023. The aircraft, which was formerly FTV-5 in the Global 7500 program and the same airframe that went supersonic during the early stages of Global 8000 flight-testing, has been configured as FTV-1 in the Global 8000 program. On its first day of flight testing in full configuration, the large-cabin twinjet flew more than seven hours without incident, reflecting the maturity of the program.

Stephen McCullough, Bombardier’s senior v-p of engineering and product development, noted its superlatives. “This is an aircraft that’s Mmo is Mach 0.94, the highest in the industry. This is an aircraft that can fly 8,000 nautical miles, the highest in our industry,” he said. McCullough also noted that for passenger comfort, the Global 8000 will have a cabin altitude of 2,900 feet when flying at 41,000 feet—the lowest in the industry.

Launched at last year’s EBACE, the Global 8000 is the same size as its 7500 sibling, with a four-zone cabin and the option for an executive cabin introduced last year at NBAA-BACE. The range improvements in the 8000 come largely from an optimization of the empty weight and the resultant ability to carry more fuel in the existing tanks.

The OEM is anticipating certification for the 8000 in the second half of 2025. At that point, Bombardier will issue an optional service bulletin for the 7500 that will allow it to be retrofitted with the 8000's performance enhancements. Downtime needed for the retrofit is expected to be less than a week.