Bombardier Global 6500
Why launch one aircraft when you can launch two at the same time? That’s exactly what Bombardier asked and did in May 2018 when it introduced the Global 5500 and Global 6500. With the latter now in service, we look at the latest aircraft in the 800-plus selling Global family. Words: Alud Davies
Bombardier Global 6500
Why launch one aircraft when you can launch two at the same time? That’s exactly what Bombardier asked and did in May 2018 when it introduced the Global 5500 and Global 6500. With the latter now in service, we look at the latest aircraft in the 800-plus selling Global family. Words: Alud Davies
WHEN BOMBARDIER announced a relatively last-minute party on the eve of the 2018 European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (EBACE), it was not hard to guess that it was planning to launch a new aircraft.
In fact, David Coleal, President of Bombardier Aviation, announced two: the Global 5500 and the Global 6500. But the big surprise was when a curtain fell back revealing the first Global 6500. It had flown all the way from the US to Europe with new Rolls-Royce engines. Nobody expected this and nobody had noticed its arrival.
To be fair to Bombardier watchers, the Global 5500 and Global 6500 are, externally at least, visually identical to the Global 5000 and Global 6000 that they are based on. Bombardier’s brief to Rolls-Royce on the engines needed to power the new aircraft, aside from the performance, was that they should fit inside the same engine nacelles that are used on the aircraft that they replace. And that’s exactly what Rolls-Royce did: designing the new engines around the existing nacelles.
The Global 6500 cabin is a spacious 7ft 11in wide.
It would be easy to think of the Global 6500 simply as a re-engined Global 6000, but it is much more than that. Internally, the aircraft has benefited from the advancements that Bombardier made with its Global 7500, both inside the cabin and in the cockpit.
The headline though was the Rolls-Royce engines, which not only allow the Global 6500 to fly further than the Global 6000, but also burn a lot less fuel. Overall, the Global 6500 can fly a maximum of 7,595nm, as much as 690nm further than the aircraft it replaces. This means that the Global 6500 will be able to fly non-stop between such cities as Singapore and London, São Paulo to Moscow and Delhi to Sydney. It can do this while burning up to 13% less fuel than the Global 6000.
Inside the cabin, the Global 6500 can carry a maximum of 17 passengers in a three-zone layout. Although owners can configure their aircraft any way that they want, the most typical arrangements are in what Bombardier calls Executive and Globetrotter floorplans. In the Executive layout, the aircraft has a forward suite with four chairs facing each other in a club arrangement, then a conference suite with a table and seating for four and a credenza, and then an aft lounge suite with two seats arranged in a club layout, and an adjacent divan. In the Globetrotter arrangement, the first zone is arranged in the same way as the Executive floorplan. The second also mirrors the Executive floorplan but adds in a chaise longue at the expense of a smaller credenza, whilst the lounge suite is fitted with a pair of facing divans.
The fully-featured forward galley of the Global 6500.
Both interior floorplans have an entrance and crew suite which includes a fully-featured kitchen with exposed dual convection/microwave ovens, and a private crew area equipped with a berthable seat. At the rear of the cabin is a lavatory with a large mirror and sink.
All of the seating, the chaise longue and divans use Bombardier’s new Nuage seating technology, which was designed to mimic the comfort of luxury home seating. The key to the Nuage seating is that it has an internal architecture designed to move as the person sitting in the seat does. The individual seats have a floating base with no track, which allow for fluid movement and intuitive positioning.
The pilots flying the aircraft also benefit from the latest advances in cockpit technology. The Global 6500 is the first aircraft equipped with the Collins Aerospace Combined Vision System (CVS), which takes infrared enhanced vision and synthetic vision and merges them together inside the pilots’ Head-up Display (HUD). This is said to give them unparalleled situational awareness, making challenging landings safer.
Collins Aerospace also supplied the cabin management and entertainment system on the Global 6500. Although the Venue system is used extensively in business aviation, the upgraded version in use on the Global 6500 can distribute content in 4K resolution. That makes video crystal clear and is a first in business aircraft. Passengers are also able to stay in touch with the outside world thanks to a lightning-fast Ka-band connectivity solution, which is distributed throughout the cabin by the Venue system.
The revolutionary Nuage seat, designed with an internal architecture that moves along with the passenger.
As far as upgrades to existing products go, the Global 6500 is virtually indistinguishable from the Global 6000. The Global 6000 was itself based on the original Global Express that entered service with its launch customer in July 1999. Since then, Bombardier has delivered more than 800 of the Global family, making it one of the most successful large-cabin, long-range aircraft families ever made.
When business aviation manufacturers update aircraft, they often use better engines, change the cabin and use updated avionics. But Bombardier has done something that manufacturers rarely do when introducing a updated aircraft – it has lowered the price. The list price for a Global 6000 is $62.13m, whilst the Global 6500 list price is $56m
