Bombardier will begin a new era in Wichita, U.S. Bombardier’s footprint in Wichita includes an expanding service centre that supports Bombardier’s entire family of Learjet, Challenger and Global business jets. The site also continues to operate one of the leading flight test centres that performs testing and certification of aircraft upgrades on all new Bombardier aircraft programmes, including the ongoing certification campaign for the Challenger 3500 jet.
Wichita is also home to the newly renamed Bombardier Defence, reflecting the company’s strategic expansion of its existing Specialised Aircraft division. The expanding defence market is a key area of growth for the company. With the reinvented Bombardier Defence, led by Steve Patrick – Vice President Bombardier Defence, the company will leverage Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) design, manufacturing and certification expertise to provide agile, innovative solutions hosted on Bombardier’s class leading aircraft platforms. This centre of excellence for defence applications, technology and innovation fully leverages the Wichita workforce and local industry.
Bombardier Defence also confirmed additional firm orders for modified versions of its Global 6000 aircraft, as part of a potential US$465 million (£355 million) order from the United States Air Force (USAF) in support of the Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) programme. Last year, Bombardier was awarded the sole-source engineering and modification Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (ID/IQ) contract from the USAF to modify up to six Global 6000 business jets to become E11-A BACN platforms. Bombardier Defence will continue to leverage Wichita’s highly reputed expertise to provide in-service support and upgrades to the USAF’s expanding BACN fleet, underscoring Bombardier’s status as a key U.S. aerospace employer.
With the announcement of Wichita as the company’s U.S. headquarters, Bombardier also announced that Tonya Sudduth, former Vice President of Operations, Wichita site, has accepted the newly created role of Head of U.S. Strategy. Based in Wichita, Sudduth will lead Bombardier’s U.S. strategy, leveraging her extensive knowledge and rich aerospace experience to build strong relationships with key stakeholders in the community, government and industry to further strengthen and grow Bombardier’s presence across all its sites in the U.S.
