You heard it here first, folks, but Bombardier has now confirmed that its prototype CRJ1000 NextGen RJ today made a successful inaugural flight from the company's facility at Mirabel, Quebec. And they sent this lovely pic.
The flight took off at 1002 and lasted three hours and 25 minutes. It reached an altitude of 30,000ft (9,144 m) and a maximum speed of 260 knots (481 km/h).
"We put the gear up, operated the flaps and slats and exercised our new 'Fly-by-Wire' rudder," said Jacques Thibaudeau, one of the pilots who crewed the aircraft.
"All systems worked as they were designed to do. The aircraft handled similarly to the smaller CRJ900 airliner so flight crews will have no problem in transitioning to the 100-seat CRJ1000 NextGen aircraft."
Following a few more flights from Mirabel, the prototype CRJ1000 will be flown to the Bombardier flight test centre in Wichita, Kansas where, next year, it will be joined by the first production CRJ1000 NextGen airliner to prepare for entry into service.
The aircraft is expected to enter commercial service in the fourth quarter of 2009.
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