Bombardier has indicated that it is considering several different plans for the rest of the CSeries flight test program.
Bombardier had previously planned to deliver the first CSeries aircraft to its customer twelve months after the program’s first flight, but that seems unlikely to many observers who feel that a more realistic delivery date will be in the first quarter of 2015 at the earliest.
As for FTV-1, the first CSeries aircraft, it flew on October 1st and October 3rd before taking a break in testing and then resuming flight tests on October 30th, 2013. The third flight took the aircraft to 25,000 feet in altitude and a speed of Mach 0.60. All of these events were, according to Bombardier, to the company’s set plans for flight testing. The hiatus of more than three weeks had always been planned according to Bombardier and was used to complete software updates and vibration tests that had not been concluded prior to the aircraft’s first flight. FTV-2, the second flight-test aircraft, is expected to fly according to Bombardier in the coming weeks, but the company did not indicate if that meant before the end of 2013.
Bombardier now has 177 orders for the CS100 and CS300 and as well has indicated that there is demand for the Q400 and CRJ aircraft programs. The company also revealed that it was considering a higher capacity, unstretched variant of the Q400 but details of that program were not further commented on.
