Announced in October 1991, it first flew on 13 October 1996, received its Canadian type certification on 31 July 1998 and entered service in July 1999. Initially powered by two BMW/Rolls-Royce BR710s, it shares its fuselage cross section with the Canadair Regional Jet and Challenger 600 with a new wing and tail. The shorter range Global 5000 is slightly smaller and the Global 6000 is updated and has been modified for military missions. The longer range Global 5500/6500 are powered by new Rolls-Royce Pearl engines with lower fuel burn and were unveiled in May 2018. The larger and stretched Global 7500/8000 have longer ranges. After acquiring Canadair and its Challenger 600 business jet in 1986, Bombardier studied a longer range business aircraft. It aimed to carry eight passengers and four crew over 12,000 km (6,500 nm) at Mach 0.85. During the early 1990s, a joint-definition team was established at the company's Montreal facility. By 1994, the team comprised 200 engineers, evenly divided between Canadair and various partners, including Japanese company Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Anglo-German engine manufacturer BMW Rolls-Royce. The Global Express was the business jet with the largest cabin, until being surpassed by the later Gulfstream G650. It can accommodate 12 to 16 passengers in three cabin sections: mostly a forward four-chair club section, a central four-seat conference grouping and an aft three-place divan facing two chairs. Most have a forward galley, crew rest chair and crew lavatory. The 10.3-psi cabin pressurization maintains a 4,500-ft. cabin altitude up to FL 450 and 5,680 ft. at the FL 510 ceiling. The Global Express and the Gulfstream 650 are very similar in appearance, the distinguishing feature being the Global Express's square windows, versus the Gulfstream's oval windows.Another aircraft of very similar appearance is the Embraer ERJ-135, which also has square windows. For more details of tghe development, design, operational history and variants of the Global Express, click here. Specifications below are for the top of the range Global Express 6500.
