Bombardier has achieved the first flight of the third CSeries flight test vehicle on 3 March.
The take-off of FTV-3 from Bombardier’s factory in Mirabel, Canada, comes two months after FTV-2 joined the flight test programme and nearly six months after first flight of FTV-1.
Two more aircraft assigned to the 110-seat CS100 variant are scheduled to enter the flight test programme later this year.
Photo courtesy of Bombardier.
Bombardier had accumulated about 100 flight test hours combined on FTV-1 and FTV-2 from 16 September through end of February.
The test fleet needs to average between 105-144 flight hours per month to complete the development phase as scheduled in the second half of 2015.
The latest schedule represents a delay of 18-24 months compared to Bombardier’s original plan.
The CSeries programme is testing several major innovations introduced on a Bombardier and single-aisle aircraft.
The innovations include the initial flight test campaign of Pratt & Whitney’s geared turbofan – the PW1500G. The CSeries also features Bombardier’s first full fly-by-wire flight control system and an aluminium-lithium fuselage.
Bombardier blamed unnamed suppliers and software delays for an initial series of schedule postponements for first flight, which slipped from late 2012 to September 2013.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
