Aviation history was made in San Luis Obispo on Thursday.
At around 2 p.m., a Bombardier Global 7500 jet took off from the SLO County Airport on its way to London to set a speed record.
"It's probably the most capable business jet on the planet right now -- obviously, the ability to go from somewhere like this to London direct, nonstop, fast, quiet, efficient,” said Bill Borgsmiller, ACI Jet CEO.
ACI Jet, which is located at the SLO County Airport, is a Bombardier authorized service facility and hosted Thursday’s event.
“The partnership with Bombardier creates a lot of jobs for our maintenance and repair facility,” Borgsmiller said. “We have dozens of technicians working in our hangar today servicing Bombardier products and this is just one more thing to help put the community on the map.”
According to Mark Masluch, Bombardier’s Senior Director of Communications, the Global 7500 can travel almost 8,000 nautical miles at more than 90% the speed of sound.
“It is the 100th record we're setting, and we're very happy to celebrate it with a community that's so passionate about aviation,” Masluch said. “Just being here, you can see that people are passionate about planes, passionate about the people who fly them, and the technical knowledge here is just second to none.”
