Bombardier's Continental business jet was launched at the Paris airshow in 1999 - and already its AS907 powerplants are under flight test mounted on the nose of an AlliedSignal's flying test-bed Boeing B-720.
As the Bombardier Continental is designed to fly non-stop across the USA - Miami/Seattle, Washington/San Francisco or Bangor/San Diego - in around 5h flying at Mach 0.82 with a full load of eight passengers, it's good to know that initial testing of the engines is progressing well.
The test-bed engine has already flown twice and accumulated 4h flying time. Power settings as high as 93.6% (26,300 rpm) N2 were achieved and windmill data was collected during the descent after an intentional shut-down.
On the second run, the engine reached full power at 41,000ft (12,500m) at Mach 0.80. A total of 7,500h of engine test time is expected on the three test engines and around 50,000 test cycles will be completed before certification which is scheduled for March 2001.
The first flight is scheduled for mid-2001 with type certification a year later.
Source: Flight Daily News
