Reuters reports that on Thursday, Bombardier forecast higher business jet “deliveries for 2023 despite supply-chain problems expected to subside but not disappear this year, chief executive Eric Martel said.” Canada’s Bombardier expects “to deliver more than 138 jets in 2023, compared with 123 last year, after strong demand for private flying lifted its quarterly results above expectations.” Martel told reporters of the company’s experienced supply chain issues, “Today there are less suppliers that have issues but those that remain have sometimes deeper issues which we need to work with.” He made a fresh case “for Bombardier to be included in any plans by Canada to buy reconnaissance jets.” Late last year, he “voiced concerns that such a contract could potentially go directly to U.S. planemaker Boeing.”
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Tag: Bombardier
Canadian Authorities Review Safety Case for Challenger Jet
FlightGlobal reports that “Canadian authorities are reviewing the safety case for the Bombardier Challenger 600 business jet, after an uncommanded flap-extension incident highlighted a potential increase in the risk of a serious accident.” The incident happened aboard a Challenger 604, which experienced the uncommanded flap-extension deployment on August 10 departing Farnborough airport in the UK. “It was travelling at 296kt as the flaps extended to 20° – some 65kt above the maximum speed limit for the configuration – and, as the aircraft decelerated to 234kt, the flaps continued to extend to 45°, for which the speed limit was 189kt.” The flight crew were able to return to Farnborough and landed the aircraft safely. The flight-data recorder showed the flaps had been retracting at half the normal speed on each wing. Officials haven’t yet figured out the reason for the uncommanded flap extension.
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Bombardier Delivers First Global 6000 for US Air Force BACN Program
Aviation International News reported that Bombardier “handed over the first Global 6000 modified for the U.S. Air Force (USAF) Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) program under an order announced in June 2021. Valued at up to $465 million, that contract was a follow-on to earlier agreements under which the company had delivered four Globals for the BACN program.”
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Bombardier Plans to Deliver More than 120 Jets in 2022
FlightGlobal reports that Bombardier “plans to deliver in excess of 120 business jets in 2022 as it ramps up production year on year, and could increase output further as early as 2023 if the market remains strong.” Bombardier Chief Executive Eric Martel said Bombardier is positioning itself “to accelerate deliveries by another 15% to 20% as soon as 2023.”
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Bombardier Delivers First Global 7500 to Indonesia-Based Customer
Aviation International News reported that Bombardier’s Global 7500 “has entered the Indonesian market with the first delivery of one of the company’s flagship business jets to an undisclosed customer based in Jakarta.” Bombardier “has been growing its customer-service footprint in” the Asia-Pacific region “with a new customer-service center expected to open in 2022 at Essendon Fields Airport in Melbourne, Australia, alongside the ongoing project at its Singapore service center, which will quadruple the operation’s space there.”
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Spacesuit Issues During Spacewalk Prevent Installation of Solar Panels on ISS
The AP reports that during a nearly seven-hour spacewalk Wednesday from the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough “encountered a pair of spacesuit issues,” which forced “him to temporarily retreat back into the airlock to reset his equipment.” Mission Control “stressed that Kimbrough was safe the entire time, despite problems with his suit’s display control panel and a fleeting pressure spike in the cooling system.” The issue “put Kimbrough and French astronaut Thomas Pesquet an hour behind, then they had trouble trying to unfold the solar panel’s booms before time finally ran out.” As a result of the delay, the astronauts were unable to complete the installation of a pair of new solar panels.
Full Story (Associated Press)
Spacesuit Issues During Spacewalk Prevent Installation of Solar Panels on ISS
The AP reports that during a nearly seven-hour spacewalk Wednesday from the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough “encountered a pair of spacesuit issues,” which forced “him to temporarily retreat back into the airlock to reset his equipment.” Mission Control “stressed that Kimbrough was safe the entire time, despite problems with his suit’s display control panel and a fleeting pressure spike in the cooling system.” The issue “put Kimbrough and French astronaut Thomas Pesquet an hour behind, then they had trouble trying to unfold the solar panel’s booms before time finally ran out.” As a result of the delay, the astronauts were unable to complete the installation of a pair of new solar panels.
Full Story (Associated Press)