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This year’s show sees three new airliners make their Farnborough debut – two of which are being displayed to the public for the first time.
Boeing and Embraer have both managed to find time in their hectic flight-test schedules to spare a 737 Max 8 and E190-E2 for the air show. With both twinjets having only started flying this year, they are making their first public appearances.
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Meanwhile, Bombardier has brought along the CSeries to Farnborough for the first time, although the twinjet has become a regular on the air show circuit since its debut at last year’s Paris event, having also appeared at Dubai in November and Singapore in February.
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Flight trials of the CFM International Leap-1B-powered 737 Max have been gathering momentum in Seattle since its first flight on 29 January 2016. The Max 8 on display at Farnborough is one of four in the flight-test programme back in Seattle.
Embraer was able to launch flight-testing of the Pratt & Whitney PW1900G-powered E-Jet E2 family ahead of schedule with the first flight of the E190-E2 on 23 May. This paved the way for it to be broken out of its test programme for a trip across the Atlantic to the UK this week for its Farnborough debut.
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The first PW1500G-powered CSeries has just been delivered to launch customer Swiss International Air Lines, and a CS100 development aircraft in Swiss colours is being displayed at the show. Swiss aims to operate the first CSeries revenue flight on 15 July, between Zurich and Paris Charles de Gaulle.
Although it is already in airline service, Airbus’s A320neo has been a notable absentee from the air show circuit, having made its first appearance as recently as the ILA event in Berlin last month. However, the re-engined twinjet, which is offered with both P&W and CFM engines, is not expected to put in an appearance at Farnborough.
Air show visitors will have to wait to see another of the new breed of airliners in the metal, as Mitsubishi cannot spare an MRJ from flight testing. However, the Japanese airframer hopes to bring the MRJ to the Paris air show next June.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
