Partners pronounce PEGASUS first flight ahead of mission system integration

The first of three Global 6000 airframes to be provisioned for the German PEGASUS programme departs on its maiden flight from the BFTC facility in the US in the second half of September. (Bombardier)

The industry partners behind the Persistent German Airborne Surveillance System (PEGASUS) project have announced the first flight of the host airframe provisioned for, but not yet fitted with, the signals intelligence (SIGINT) mission system.

Announced by Bombardier Defense, Lufthansa Technik Defense, and Hensoldt on 23 October, the milestone saw the first of three Global 6000 business jets to be equipped with the internal interfaces and external fairings needed for PEGASUS to take its maiden flight out of the airframer's Bombardier Flight Test Centre (BFTC) facility in Wichita in the US in the second half of September.

“We are celebrating the first flight here today,” Steve Patrick, vice-president of Bombardier Defense, said at a press call being held out of Wichita to mark the first flight. “Since [the flight in September], we have been flying the aircraft on a regular basis – it is performing very well, and we have been able to open up the flight envelope. The test pilots have confirmed that the aircraft handles as expected and flies very much like the Global 6000 [that underpins it], and we will now continue the flight-test programme.”

Airframe modifications