CS300 arrive in Belfast, UK The Bombardier CSeries has clocked 2000 flight hours, a milestone for the Canadian single aisle airplane p...
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| CS300 arrive in Belfast, UK |
The Bombardier CSeries has clocked 2000 flight hours, a milestone for the Canadian single aisle airplane program, since flight test began in 2013 September.
Of this, more than 1000 flight hours were clocked this year, indicating good progress to a program which is late by 2 years, over budget by $2 billion and have undergone an uncontained engine failure during ground testing.
The six aircraft certification fleet consisting, five CS100 and one CS300 airliner, has to amass around 2500 combined flight hours to achieve certification, which is planned towards the end of 2015 or early 2016.
SWISS airlines will be the first customer to take delivery and operate the CSeries when the CS100 aircraft enters service in the first half of 2016. Air Baltic will be the launch customer for the stretched CS300 in September 2016.
Bombardier during the Paris Air Show 2015 announced that, flight tests results showed the CSeries aircraft exceeding their original targets for fuel burn, payload, range and airfield performance.
The C Series aircraft’s maximum range has been confirmed to be up to 3,300 NM (6,112 km), some 350 NM (648 km) more than originally targeted. The aircraft is delivering more than a 20% fuel burn advantage compared to in-production aircraft, and a greater than 10% advantage compared to re-engined aircraft.
The program recorded its longest flight in June, when the fifth flight test vehicle (FTV5), a CS100, returned to its Mirabel, Québec base following its demo in Zurich with SWISS Airlines. The non-stop, transatlantic trip, which covered 3,350 nautical miles (6,204 km) was completed with an air time of approximately 8.4 hours.
Catering to the 100-149 seat market, CSeries will compete with Boeing 737 series, the Airbus A320 family, Comac C919, and the Embraer 190 series regional jet. It is powered by two Pratt & Whitney PurePower® PW1500G geared turbofan engines, a key contributor to its fuel efficiency.
