How Wichita plays a role in a new Mideast spy plane

GlobalEye, a new airborne surveillance system using a Bombardier Global 6000 business jet, successfully completed its first flight on Wednesday.

It's a program headed by Swedish company Saab that Bombardier confirmed was helped along in its development by some of its Wichita workers.

"Bombardier’s Special Missions team in Wichita provided engineering support to Saab in the development of the GlobalEye," said a Bombardier statement to The Eagle. "Our team leveraged extensive flight test program experience to design and fabricate some of the mission-specific flight test equipment on the GlobalEye, which will be used in the first flight."

The launch customer for Saab's GlobalEye Airborne Early Warning and Control system is the United Arab Emirates Armed Forces, which has ordered three of the aircraft and systems. The plane and its equipment will allow U.A.E. forces to conduct air, maritime and ground surveillance and reconnaissance, and military and search and rescue operations, according to a Saab news release.

Bombardier said more than 1,000 of its Learjets, Challengers, Globals and Q400s are in use as specialized mission aircraft around the world.

This story was originally published March 15, 2018 at 10:23 AM with the headline "How Wichita plays a role in a new Mideast spy plane."