At a media briefing here yesterday, Bombardier Learjet vice president and general manager David Coleal strongly hinted that very little of the structural design work done by Grob on the midsize Learjet 85 was salvageable and that Bombardier’s facility in Queretaro, Mexico, would play a critical role in providing most of the aircraft’s structural components.
Coleal also announced that Learjet is tapping the expertise of an internal Bombardier composites advisory board to navigate the way forward on the aircraft and that the company remained committed to delivering the first certified Learjet 85 by 2012.
Bombardier terminated its contract with Grob on September 17 after the German company filed for insolvency. “We learned a lot [from Grob] but a lot was still left to do, so we are going to reevaluate everything,”Coleal said, adding that Grob had not developed any tooling or parts for the Learjet 85 and that most of the engineering work done by Grob probably would not be used in the project going forward. Coleal said Bombardier had no plans to hire any of the Grob engineers involved on the Learjet 85 and that the composites technology on the aircraft could change substantially.
