Bombardier could be lining up for an imminent first flight of its all-new CSeries airliner in the wake of high-speed taxi trials apparently conducted at Mirabel, near its Montreal headquarters 1 September.

Bombardier was unavailable for comment, but testing witnessed by a Flightglobal associate came just days after Transport Canada granted approval for flight testing of aircraft FTV-1.

 Cseries flight trials (c) Patrick Cardinal

CSeries taxi

Patrick Cardinal

In addition to high-speed taxi tests, the aircraft must complete landing gear and other minor checks before a first flight which, as of end-August, Bombardier said was due in "coming weeks".

The crew for the first flight will include chief pilot Chuck Ellis, first officer Andy Litavniks and flight test engineer Andreas Hartono.

Bombardier rolled FTV-1 out of the paint shop at Mirabel airport on 22 August and began low-speed taxi tests on 16 August.

Source: Air Transport Intelligence news