The Bombardier Global 8000 – the world’s fastest passenger jet – is expected to enter service in 2025. An iteration of the jet – a Global 7500 test vehicle – went supersonic in tests. The Bombardier Global 8,000 will have a top speed of Mach 0.94 – the fastest time in business aviation.
The Global 8000 is a private jet built, according to its website, “for a new era where the fastest speed, the longest range and the smoothest ride converge in a single business aircraft with proven reliability and the healthiest, best-connected cabin in the industry.” That’s no small claim. But it gets better.
The Global 8000 also boasts the healthiest air, it says, and the smoothest ride (it can take up to 19 passengers, and has a range of 14,800 kilometres). Bombardier took to the stage at The European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition in Geneva to announce the fact that it would be proceeding with the Global 8000, which is an upgrade on the Global 7500.
They also shared that the Global 8000 will use the same fuselage as the Global 7500. The Global 8000 is intended to eventually replace the Global 7500, Bombardier president and CEO Eric Martel, said.
Bombardier claimed that in a test flight and demonstration, test pilots repeatedly broke the sound barrier with speeds of beyond Mach 1.015. The company also says that these tests happened with the aircraft using sustainable aviation fuel, which is a first for a Transport Category aircraft.
“The Global 8000 will be the fastest civil airplane since the Concorde.”
Bombardier
Some believe that developments like this could spell the end for first class cabins on commercial jets. As private jet flying gets better and better, and as business class gets more and more similar to first class, the argument goes, fewer people will have an incentive to book at the very front of the plane.
