Bombardier is showing its $33.5 million Global 5000 widebody business
jet with a completed interior for the first time at an NBAA convention
this week, trumpeting a new cabin communications and entertainment
suite, the Rockwell Collins' Airshow 21.
The Canadian airframer (Booth 13800) plans to eventually
offer the Airshow 21 cabin in its flagship Global Express XRS too.
"There's absolutely no question that people are looking for greater
utility, connectivity and more functionality in an airplane today,"
says Bombardier Business Aircraft president Peter Edwards. Overall
cabin enhancement, he says, is "a very definite trend."
Beyond the Video
The big difference between the Airshow 21 system
for the Global 5000 and older Airshow units is that the new
one takes advantage of the aircraft's built-in Ethernet network
to provide a truly interactive experience for the user.
The older, video-based systems "push" a pre-recorded
selection of information, says Mike Tiffany, director of information-based
products and services at Rockwell Collins (Booth 12519). With
Airshow 21, "people will be able to pull just the information
they want to see."
The Airshow 21 suite for the Global 5000 is
distinguished by a new moving map display. And rather than
just watch a cartoon jet drone across the screen, users will
be able to access a plethora of real-time flight status updates,
as well as maps and other information about their destination,
and a wealth of other options.
Bombardier is targeting December for an STC
for the Airshow 21 cabin in the Global 5000.
"The technological opportunity that we saw we felt needed to be
integrated into the 5000 in a fundamentally new way," Edwards says,
explaining that Bombardier took "a fundamentally new approach to
the 5000 interior."
"When you have a model change it allows you to make a big step,"
he told Show News on the eve of NBAA 2004.
Airshow 21 is touted as a cabin that lets passengers take full
control of their environment while affording unparalleled contact
with the outside world, both for business and for entertainment.
The Ethernet-based system features "a redundant communications backbone,
maximizing system availability while providing digital distribution
of information and allowing for easy installation of future upgrades."
Global 5000 passengers will enjoy networked office capabilities
in the air that are "similar to those they enjoy on the ground,"
with off-board data connectivity and easy access to printers, fax
machines and shared files. A wireless LAN will be available too.
