Huge plant will build world's fastest business jets at Pearson Airport in Mississauga, Ontario | insauga

Bombardier marked the official inauguration of its new jet-building plant this week at Pearson Airport in Mississauga. (Photo: Bombardier)

At 770,000-sq.-ft. in size, it's the largest standalone structure built in the past two decades at Pearson Airport in Mississauga.

It cost in the neighbourhood of $670 million to construct and houses several thousand workers whose finished products, company officials will tell you, inspire awe as they're rolled out onto the tarmac under a bright sun.

Bottom line — this place builds some very cool, and super fast, private jets.

Bombardier's new Global Manufacturing Centre, described by the Montreal-based international firm as a "state-of-the-art" final assembly plant for its line of Global business aircraft, celebrated its official inauguration on Wednesday.

The Mississauga jet-building plant opened several months ago and production has quickly been ramping up to full capacity. As of late March, all operations had been moved to Pearson after the recent final closing of the old Downsview plant.

Rendering of Bombardier's new Global Manufacturing Centre at Pearson Airport in Mississauga. (Photo: Bombardier)

Pearson officials, in a post to social media this week, described the new facility as marking "a monumental collaboration" between Bombardier and Canada's biggest and busiest airport.

They added, "we are proud to be the first major international airport to host an airplane manufacturer facility of this magnitude."

Bombardier executives said the new Global Manufacturing Centre is "ushering in a new era of innovation and excellence" in the field of business jet production.

Already building private jets considered to be among some of the fastest in the world, Bombardier says it will soon be building "the fastest" such aircraft.

Bombardier's Global 8000 will be the world's fastest business jet when it rolls off the line starting in 2025. (Photo: Bombardier)

Set to come off the production line in 2025, the company's new flagship Global 8000 aircraft will whisk passengers around the world at a speed approaching the speed of sound and greater than that of any other private jet currently in the skies.

At $78 million apiece and with room for 19 passengers, the Global 8000 will fly at a top operating speed of Mach .94 (about 1,160 km/h). Mach 1, the speed of sound, translates to 1,234 km/h.

During a test flight in May 2021 observed by a NASA-operated Boeing F-18 fighter, the new Bombardier private jet broke the sound barrier when it recorded a speed of Mach 1.015, or 1,243 km/h.

"The Global 8000 private jet is the flagship for a new era where the fastest speed, the longest range and the smoothest ride converge in a single business aircraft with proven reliability and the healthiest, best-connected cabin in the industry," Bombardier officials said in an earlier online description of the new jet.

Prior to the facility's official inauguration this week, top Bombardier brass gave an early tour of the new plant to Ontario Premier Doug Ford and other dignitaries in January. 

A look inside Bombardier's huge Global Manufacturing Centre at Pearson Airport in Mississauga. (Photo: Bombardier)