Bombardier Aerospace Tour - Sunday April 29, 2007
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On Sunday, April 29th, the YYZ Airport Watch Members were treated to a tour of the Bombardier facility at Downsview. Unfortunately, numbers had to be limited and many members were unable to participate. We hope to visit the Bombardier facilities again in the future and that members who missed this tour, will have an opportunity to do so at that time. A big thank you goes out to YYZ Airport Watch member Trevor Ogle for preparing the following summary of this great tour. April 29th was a beautiful sunny day as members met at the front entrance to the plant. Some of us took the opportunity to arrive a few minutes early to see if any aircraft were outside and therefore available for photographs. The only aircraft outside were a Global Express and a Dash 8 400 which is destined for Luxair, both in primer. No cameras, or cell phones with cameras, were permitted on the tour for security reasons. Our group was divided into two by our tour guides, Mr. Bill Tee & Mr. Norm Beauchamp both of whom are retired from Bombardier. Since it was a Sunday, there were a limited number of employees working on the lines. I was very surprised at the number of airframes being worked on, perhaps greater than 40 and this does not include those airframes just beginning their life. As always occurs when you have the chance to stand beside an aircraft, the size is quite surprising with even Dash 8's appearing much larger than when spotted on approach to YYZ. The Global Express is a very large and impressive airframe. Perhaps I am a little ignorant but was surprised to learn that Bombardier also builds the wings for Learjets and ships them to Wichita, Kansas for mating with the fuselages. The "scribblers" on the tour were busy noting the airframe numbers and registrations on the aircraft, our tour guides were very patient and understanding of our love of the industry and allowed us access to ensure that no registration went unnoticed. (A detailed list appears below). The most enjoyable part of the tour for me was to see the fully painted aircraft almost ready for delivery to their customer. Their were only 3 Dash 8 400's which were fully painted, the first one for Luxair, one for Japan Air Lines and one for FlyBe. Many others appeared ready to enter the paint shop and had the prospective customers name on the airframe. The tour lasted approximately 2 hours and I highly recommend other members take the opportunity if and when it is offered. The YYZ Airport Watch would like to
thank the following persons for helping make this a memorable and
enjoyable event. |
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Click images for a full size photo |
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Photos by Ken Keen & Andrew Cline |
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Aircraft/Airframes noted on tour - thanks to Mike Ody for this detailed list. |
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8-200/300
644 -315 C-FJKU - primer with NAS sticker ..............will become VH-=== 645 -315 (C-FLKI) - primer with Avitrade sticker .........they are Portugeuse...and the last two went to Heli Malongo as D2-registered 647 -311 (C-FLTZ) - primer with ANZ sticker ..............will become ZK-NEU 648 -311 - primer - for ANZ ..............will become ZK-NEW 649 -202 - primer - for Northrop Grumman ....will become N649CC 650 -311 - primer - for ANZ ...............will become ZK-NEY 651 -315 - primer - for Japan Coastguard ......will become JA-=== .in main assembly 652 -315 - fwd cockpit and main fues not joined ......for Japan Coastguard .......will become JA-=== from 653 onwards there were small bits and pieces ...nose flaps etc ...nothing that looked like an airplane There was one -300 in the paint shed that was taped up and defied identification................. and another in the old test rig bay that also defied identification ................. Missing were 641/642 and 646.........presumably two of the unidentified were two of the missing ..plus one really missing By the way ..646 is a 202 and should be delivered in primer to Northrop Grumman .................so maybe that has already gone ....... up to 652 already covered 653 - 300 Air Philippines 654 unknown 655 -200 US Customs There were no more revelations ...but not many more to come .....probably no more than the 4 -200 for Tassili and 3 -300 for Air Philippines .....maybe line to be closed down after that Dash 8-400 4157 -402 C-FLKV - full FlyBe colours - CY over cockpit ....will become G-JECX 4158 -402 C-FLKW - full Japan Air Commuter colours - 50C on nwd ....will become JA850C 4159 -402 (C-FLKX) - full Luxair colours as LX-LGA 4160 -402 C-FLTL - primer - for Horizon 4161 -402 (C-FLTT) - primer - for Horizon 4162 -402 (C-FLTY) - primer - for Luxair .....outside on ramp 4163 -402 - primer - for Horizon 4164 -402 - primer - no customer noted 4165 -402 - primer - in test rig hangar - customer not noted - not seen on tour 4166 -402 - primer - in test rig hangar - for Horizon 4167 -402 - on line - for Tassili 4168 -402 - on line - for Frontier 4169 -402 - on line - for Tassili 4170 -402 - on line - for Frontier 4171 -402 - on line - for Luxair from 4172 onwards (up to 4183) were bits and pieces |
Dash 8-400 4172 Frontier 4173 Tassili 4174 Frontier 4175 Fly Baboo 4176 Frontier 4177 Japan Air Commuter 4178 Tassili 4179 FlyBe 4180 FlyBe 4181 Frontier 4182 Frontier 4183 Wideroes 4184 Frontier 4185 FlyBe 4186 Frontier 4187 QANTAS Global Express 9242 C-FLTB 9243 C-FLTH 9244 C-FLTI 9245 (C-FLTJ) 9246 9247 9248 9249 9250 9251 9252 9253 9254 9255 ...........beginning of final assembly --- wings mated to main fues box 9256 ........... main fues box on a dolly ............ |
