Bombardier says the first CSeries flight test vehicle is preparing to fly “in the coming days”.
The aircraft has not flown in the nearly eight days since completing a highly publicised first flight on 16 September.
The flight test team was given time off immediately after the maiden flight was completed, Bombardier says.
Meanwhile, the team also has been reviewing 14,000 data points collected during the inaugural 2.5h flight test, Bombardier says.
The absence of follow-up flight tests in the week after the first flight differs with the experience of other manufacturers. The Airbus A350-900 completed three flights, including a fly-by of the Paris air show, in the week after its first flight on 14 June.
But Bombardier argues the comparison is not valid.
“We are not like other OEMs,” says a Bombardier spokeswoman. “Bombardier is clearly running its CSeries aircraft’s flight test programme in its own manner.”
The company is targeting next September to complete the flight test programme for the 110-seat CS100 variant, with five test aircraft scheduled to finish 2,500h of flight tests during the 12-month period.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
