Asian Sky Quarterly 2021Q1

PRE-OWNED MARKET SPOTLIGHT
GLOBAL XRS AND GLOBAL 6000
The original Global Express was first announced during the 1991 NBAA show. At the time,
Bombardier’s Challenger 600 series aircraft was the biggest, and furthest flying business
jets that the Canadian manufacturer was building. But Bombardier’s customers wanted
more. Whilst the Challenger 600 series are great aircraft, they lacked the range to fly ultra-long
distances. The Global Express was launched to solve that problem, with the aim of being able to
fly from any two points on the globe, with only one fuel stop.
Although the Global Express shares the same fuselage cross section as the 1,000+ selling CRJ
series of regional jets, it differs from the CRJ by having a newly designed supercritical wing,
and a new tail structure. At its time of release, the Global Express had the furthest range of any
purpose-built business jet, with its ability to fly a maximum of 6,000nm trumping its closest rival,
the Gulfstream IV, by a long way. Gulfstream would soon reply to the Global Express with the
launch of the Gulfstream V.
Bombardier would later launch the Global Express XRS – an updated variant that included an
increase in range thanks to an additional fuel tank inserted at the wing root. This helped increase
the Global XRS’s range over the baseline Global Express by just over 300nm. Other improvements
included an updated cabin and increased maximum cruise speed.
The Global 6000 was introduced in 2012 and is a rebranded Global Express with a few several key
upgrades. The upgrades include an updated cockpit that features the Rockwell Collins Pro Line
Fusion avionics suite.
40 | ASIAN SKY QUARTERLY — FIRST QUARTER 2021