Bombardier may seek more information before accepting Pratt & Whitney's proposed solution to the engine malfunction that has kept the CSeries flight test fleet grounded for two months, executives say.
The aircraft manufacturer is still evaluating P&W's proposed fix for the oil system failure that damaged the PW1500G engine and the fuselage of FTV-1 during a 29 May ground test, says Bombardier chief executive Pierre Beaudoin.
Bombardiar received P&W's submission two weeks ago, he says.
"We should make a decision shortly," says Beaudoin. "That's why we continue to say [a return to flight is possible] within weeks. We may have some more questions to Pratt before we make a decision. But we've made substantial progress because Pratt has proposed a solution to return to flight."
Bombardier
Despite the two-month grounding, Bombardier also maintains the six-month window for entry into service of the first CSeries aircraft in the second half of 2015, he says.
In regulatory filings released today, Bombardier says the CSeries flight test has continued performing ground-based certification tests, such as checks for electromagnetic interference and lightning strike. Bombardier is also installing the latest version of the flight-control software.
Elsewhere, progress is being made slowly. Bombardier first disclosed that FTV-5 had entered the assembly process in March 2013. The expectation now is that it will finally delivered to the flight-test team in the "coming months".
The first of the two flight-test vehicles assigned to the CS300 programme has been assembled and will be delivered to the flight test team "soon", Bombardier says.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
