Hours after announcing a new schedule delay, Bombardier on 16 January completed the first cross-country flight by the CSeries flight test aircraft.
The roughly 1,200nm (2,220km) flight repositions the first CS100 test aircraft (FTV-1) to the headquarter’s of Bombardier’s Learjet division.
The new location will help FTV-1 complete more flight tests by escaping the harsh winter weather in Mirabel, Bombardier says.
Since flight testing began on 16 September, Bombardier has now completed 25 flights and more than 45 total flight hours by FTV-1 and FTV-2.
Bombardier previously announced delaying first delivery to launch operator Malmo Aviation by nine to 15 months to the second half of 2015.
The programme needs more time to allow the software used by the CSeries fly-by-wire flight controls to mature, Bombardier says.
Bombardier has been testing both aircraft in flight using direct mode, meaning the envelope protections enabled by the normal mode of the fly-by-wire system are deactivated.
The test aircraft will switch to normal mode during the next phase of testing, Bombardier says.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
