By Ken Pole | February 27, 2015 Estimated reading time 1 minute, 52 seconds.
Bombardier’s CS300 lifts into the air on its maiden flight on Feb. 27, 2015.
Bombardier’s CS300 logged a virtually flawless first flight on Feb. 27, 2015, under clear skies on a bitterly cold day in Mirabel, Que. The flight positions the aircraft for certification later this year, and the start of commercial service in 2016.
The only hiccup in maiden flight preparations was a short-lived issue with telemetry, which delayed takeoff by about an hour. Bombardier’s Mike Arcamone, president of the Commercial Aircraft Division, was so confident in the CS300—and its smaller sibling, the CS100, which first flew in September 2013 and which has 95 per cent commonality—that he said the clean sheet jets have the competition “running scared.”
Rob Dewar, vice-president in charge of the CSeries program, said that 80 per cent of the four-aircraft flight test program is “behind us” and there are “really no open issues” to resolve.
Alain Bellmare, the new chief executive officer of Bombardier Aerospace, dismissed suggestions that the two-year delay in getting the aircraft into service was problematic. He described the market for 100- to 150-seat jets as “wide open.”
Flanked by a CRJ900 NextGen chase plane, Bombardier’s CS300 airliner lifts off on its inaugural flight.
