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 kilometers). 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.
Aviation Week reports that: “The $78 million Global 8000 will be the fastest in its class, officials say, with entry-into-service in 2025.” The publication also reported that “the upgrades will be available to Global 7500 customers beginning in 2025 at Bombardier service centers.”
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.
CNN Travel reports that the Global 8000 is “just one of many developments in the numerous efforts to raise the speed of passenger aircraft more than two decades after Concorde retired.”
CNN Travel points out that last year, “United Airlines announced it could be offering supersonic routes as early as 2029 after striking a deal to buy 15 supersonic jets.” They also report that “Colorado-based Boom Supersonic has been completing ground testing on X-B1, the prototype aircraft for its Overture jet, designed to seat between 65 and 88 people, which aims to fly on over 500 mainly transoceanic routes that will benefit from the aircraft’s Mach-2.2 speeds.”
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.