Bombardier is on track in its flight test programme for the CSeries and its third test flight aircraft is preparing to take to the skies "within weeks".
"Our curve is tracking to meet the 2,400 hours of flight test," says Bombardier Commercial Aircraft's president Mike Arcamone in an interview with Flightglobal at the Singapore air show.
He would not disclose the number of flight hours the two flight test vehicles have accumulated, but says that the performance of the jet in terms of weight, fuel burn and per seat costs, have so far been within the published guidelines.
"When we look at the test programme in terms of ground, rig and real flight hours, the great thing is we're very pleased. As of now we've found no major issues...it is behaving exactly how we predict it to behave. Right now structurally, the aircraft has no issues," says Arcamone. He adds that there have not been any design and structural changes since first flight.
The airframer says it has more than 10 aircraft in various stages of testing and production, and that key components are being manufactured at its partners' sites for aircraft to follow.
Bombardier now holds firm orders for 201 CSeries aircraft. Last month, it announced a delay in the entry-into-service for the CS100 by 15 months to the second half of 2015.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
