Bombardier has received FAA certification for its Global 5500 and Global 6500 business jets, and senior vice president, programme management and engineering Michel Ouellette says: “This latest milestone is terrific news and starts a new chapter in our Global family story. With the largest cabins in their respective classes, breakthrough design attributes and unique expressions of comfort, control and the smoothest ride, the Global 5500 and Global 6500 aircraft have a strong future and will earn the appreciation of executives, pilots and operators around the world.”

The aircraft went through a rigorous flight testing programme and obtained Transport Canada and EASA certifications within a few weeks of each other.

They are both powered by Pearl 15 engines, custom-designed by Rolls-Royce and officially certified by the FAA. RR director, business aviation Dr Dirk Geisinger notes: “We are proud to have reached this important milestone on time. We have worked closely with the teams at the FAA and Bombardier to achieve this certification and would like to thank them for their support. Meanwhile, our production and services teams are fully focussed on delivering a smooth entry into service and the planned production ramp up.”

The Pearl engine combines technologies derived from the Rolls-Royce Advance2 technology demonstrator programmes with proven features from the BR700. As well as a new-generation Engine Health Monitoring System that introduces advanced vibration detection, the engine benefits from the incorporation of advanced remote engine diagnostics and bi-directional communications that allow for easy remote reconfiguration of engine-monitoring features from the ground. It features the same nacelle envelope as the BR710 but is more powerful, with a maximum certified thrust of 15,250lb, and has up to seven per cent better specific fuel consumption, is 2dB cumulative quieter and shows a 20 per cent improvement in NOx emissions margin.

The Global 5500 and 6500 offer 700 and 600 nm of additional range over the Global 5000 and 6000 respectively, coupled with an up to 13 per cent fuel burn advantage, contributing to highly favourable operating costs versus smaller competing aircraft with less range. In addition, the Global 5500 flies 200 nm farther than planned and can fly nonstop from Western Europe to the west coast of the United States.