Bombardier Learjet is expanding as it prepares to take on the company's newest business jet — the eight-passenger, intercontinental Learjet 85.
A production hangar has been vacated and expanded by 28,000 square feet to take on the plane's final assembly.
Blue tape on the floor in the factory outlines the plane's size and shape to show how it will fit inside the enlarged area.
Extra tall overhead doors and posts that swing outward have been installed so the finished jet can be tugged outside.
The company also will add a paint facility, preflight facility and new delivery center.
Ralph Acs, Bombardier Learjet vice president and general manager, wants the public to be able to see the sleek jets inside the new delivery center as they drive by.
He likens it to driving by a Porsche or Lexus dealership and seeing the new automobiles inside.
"I want the delivery center not to be hidden," Acs said.
Wichita will assemble, paint, flight test, install the interiors and deliver the jet.
The Learjet 85 program was launched in 2007 with entry-into-service expected in 2013.
The Learjet 85 Wichita assembly site will support 600 jobs, 300 of them new positions, the company has said.
Last year, the state of Kansas awarded Bombardier $27 million in bond financing in exchange for the plane's assembly in Wichita.
The Learjet 85's large components will be made at the company's plant in Mexico. Wing components will be built at its Belfast facility in Northern Ireland, which makes the composite wing on the company's CSeries airliner. Wings will be built using a resin transfer infusion process developed by Bombardier and adapted for the business jet.
www.kansas.com
BY MOLLY MCMILLIN
The Wichita Eagle
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