Parts continue to arrive at Bombardier’s CIASTA facility in Mirabel each day for function and reliability testing. Bombardier has completed a significant portion of the detailed design phase of its 100- to 125-seat CS100, as it prepares for first flight during next year’s second half.
In fact, by the time program vice president and general manager Rob Dewar spoke with us in the run-up to this Dubai Air Show, the program had progressed “well over” halfway through its detailed design phase, and several parts had already arrived at supplier sites and in Mirabel, Quebec, at Bombardier’s complete integrated aircraft systems test area (CIASTA). That testing and proving facility is designed to assess systems for reliability and functionality before the first prototype flies.
“All the parts are designed in 3-D, virtually, into one integrated database that all our suppliers work with in real time, and all the data supporting those parts–that’s why it’s called data set release–is actually linked into the parts. Whether it’s a material callout, whether it’s which aircraft it goes on, the process that we use to either manufacture or maintain that part is integrated,” said Dewar. “So no matter what stakeholder looks at the CSeries, they can have all the data they require for the full of the program contained in that part. That’s major because in the past we didn’t have the systems in place or the computing power to do that, so a lot of human intervention was required to find the data.”
By late September, what Dewar called “the first wave of system component delivery” had begun, as system suppliers began commissioning their rigs. Those suppliers need between three and six months to “mature” their own systems to ensure they function as planned. Once they do that, the systems arrive at the CIASTA, where Bombardier performs the integration.
GTF Finishes Testing
The CSeries’s Pratt & Whitney PW1524 geared turbofan had just finished flight testing after logging 115 hours in the air during 25 flights on the engine company’s Boeing 747SP flying test bed. “We are really excited about how the engine is going,” said Dewar. “We expected a lot more learning [time]. So, really, for a test engine, the fuel burn was above our expectations.”
Schedules Intact
Asked about progress of a weight-reduction effort that former Bombardier Commercial Airplanes president Gary Scott had mentioned to AIN last year, Dewar was noncommittal. “We still have data sets being released up until the end of this year,” said Dewar. “So we manage the weight on a daily basis.”
Although Dewar declined to offer details about the status of the various parts of the new factory in Mirabel, he said construction remains “on track.” Meanwhile, “a lot is going on in St. Laurent,” north of Montreal, where Bombardier has installed all new equipment including a composites facility, a clean room, autoclaves and robots to join the fuselage. “All these things are in place and are in the process of being commissioned,” he said. There, the company plans to manufacture the airplane’s carbon-fiber aft fuselage and cockpit, and mate the cockpit with the forward fuselage section made by Shenyang.
Composites account for some 46 percent of the entire airplane, and roughly 90 percent of wing, made at Bombardier’s Belfast plant. So-called advanced materials, including the aluminum-lithium used for the fuselage, account for some 70 percent of the content.
Now holding firm orders for 133 CSeries jets, options on 120 and purchase rights on 10, Bombardier still hadn’t gotten permission to reveal the identity of the customer who plans to take the first airplanes. But Qatar Airways is strongly tipped to confirm its commitment to the program, even by high-level executives from rival airframer Embraer.
Source: Gregory Polek
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