Bombardier Evolving in Wichita with Busy Base

As Bombardier ramps up focus on its U.S. network of service centers—most recently with last week’s announced plans to expand in Indiana—its expansive site at Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport (KICT) continues to extend its reach and add more capabilities. After it shuttered the Learjet lines in March 2022, Bombardier made the strategic decision to establish Wichita as its U.S. headquarters, building up its MRO base, growing its defense business, and reinforcing its flight activities.

The campus encompasses 1.2 million sq ft of hangar space to accommodate those activities, and all of that is filled. Bombardier’s oldest and largest repair station, the MRO comprises seven hangars—up from three less than a decade ago. This provides the company space to ensure it has availability in its largest hangars to accommodate its Global lines—the 7500 has a 104-foot wingspan and a 27-foot tail height—along with Challenger and Learjet maintenance.

Bombardier has also set aside hangars for a large fractional customer, as well as for AOG aircraft.  But it also has plenty of ramp space should overflow capacity be necessary.

The site has undergone numerous changes over the years. Global completions were there for a few years before shifting back to Montreal in 2021, for instance.

“From a footprint perspective, the site is at capacity, but that square footage changes based on the use. So, we’re constantly evolving,” said Mitch Dishman, general manager of the Wichita Service Center.

Despite ending production and returning the completion services to Montreal, work has not been an issue as the services business has grown. Many of the Learjet production workers, who know the product best, were pulled over to support. The defense business has built up, requiring more specialists.

Dishman estimated that the services business alone has close to 500 technicians—not including defense and flight-test work—but is continuing to hire.

However, he stressed, “We’ve been fortunate this year. We’ve been able to attract really good talent, so our recruiting events have been very successful. The reputation both locally and just across the industry is very positive, so we actually have people asking us to come here as opposed to us necessarily going and recruiting. That’s been an amazing thing.”

To standardize its training throughout its network and better prepare incoming workers, Bombardier converted a delivery center into a training center that will provide hands-on experience before new hires enter the shop floor.

“We’ve actually cut up an entire aircraft, and we’re going to use actual aircraft parts and systems,” he said. “We’re working with a lot of different people in the company to build up a ready-to-work program so that all the technicians will come here. It will teach all the dos and don’ts on actual aircraft components and systems before they even step foot on the floor, so they get all of that right up front.”

As for capacity, Dishman noted there would be room to expand if necessary. “There is space at the airport, which is managed by the city. We have a really good relationship with them as well.”

Wichita has served as a center for its MRO business with clients coming from around the globe, many based on the long-established relationships built over the years. “People come from all over the world. It truly is unlimited,” Dishman said, pointing to an aircraft in the hangar at the time with a YL (Latvian) registration.

“Some customers like coming to Wichita because they like the city or they like working with the team. This business is relationship-based, so where you have the best relationship is where you’re going to go.”

While he noted that customers have their preferences, he stressed that Bombardier has focused on standardizing their services so customers can have the same experience no matter where they are or who they are working with on a project.

As for the defense side of the business, the company in 2022 stood up Bombardier Defense with Wichita as its home, formalizing its special missions businesses and signaling that it planned to significantly step up its presence in the arena. At the time, company president and CEO Éric Martel estimated the business had the potential to reach $1 billion.

With a steady flow of contracts that have included the so-called “Wi-Fi in the sky” Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN), High Accuracy Detection and Exploitation System (HADES), Persistent German Airborne Surveillance System (PEGASUS), and the GlobalEye, this business has taken off, and Bombardier now says its defense unit could reach between $1 billion and $1.5 billion. In September, Bombardier handed over its ninth Global, a 6500, for the BACN program.

The defense unit has pulled expertise from its flight-test team and development teams, along with talent from the local pool of skilled workers. “It’s growing,” said Rob Reece, program manager for Bombardier Defense, who has spent 25 years working with the company’s defense and special-mission applications.

“We’re very capable because of that core knowledge from the flight-test engineering team and the development team, which are doing things that are rolled over into our defense programs. We’ve been able to grow into the capabilities we have [because of] the skill sets that we can draw from the local community in Wichita.”

Reece explained that some of the modifications required to missionize the aircraft are extensive. But being the OEM with all the original certification data, the company has an advantage of being able to fully understand the changes and make sure they go smoothly.

The defense unit has taken over the full Learjet production hangars, but the site and capabilities continue to evolve. “It’s going to evolve even more as we get more customers,” added Billy Doolittle, manager of U.S. defense programs. “As we get more customers, every customer’s needs are just a little bit different. It depends on what mission they’re flying, depends on and what requirements they might have. We just go into it, and we adapt.”

All the while, flight testing remains busy, testing anything needed for in-service, as well as new products. Nearly all of Bombardier’s flight-testing campaigns have ended up in Wichita, including the former C Series airliners.

Most recently, this involved Global 8000 trials for the follow-on to the Global 7500. Certification testing was essentially wrapped up in September, but work is continuing, such as meeting recurring requirements for engine runs for maintenance. Much testing was done on a converted Global 7500, and that aircraft will be used for future enhancement testing or any in-service work. And more is coming down the road as the flight-test team contemplates its accommodations for future programs.

The site, which includes an estimated 150 employees in the flight-test group, has a motion simulator on a fixed base that can examine pilot interfaces, a ground control center for monitoring of flight tests, testing rigs that are consolidated in their own room for each program, and a data center that contains most of the certification records.  

As for the simulator, Benjamin Povall, manager of engineering for the Bombardier Flight Test Center, noted that this type of work is becoming necessary to keep up with newer human factors requirements for certification.  

Noting the supersonic flight completed for the Global 8000 work, he said, “We were able to use this when we did our supersonic testing to simulate that before we went out to California to do all that work. So, for our next programs, we’re taking the next step towards how we build these visuals with the flight deck laid out in the right way.”