CSeries Poised to Fly, Weather Permitting

Bombardier’s CSeries will fly as soon as the flight test team encounters a large enough window of visual flight rule (VFR) conditions, a company spokesman told AIN on Monday.

Unfortunately for Bombardier, weather reports call for thunderstorms and showers for the rest of the week, potentially delaying the long-anticipated event until at least the weekend.

Bombardier began the high-speed taxi trials on September 6, when dry weather conditions finally allowed flight test managers to clear FTV1 for the tests. Still executing high-speed taxi runs on Monday morning, the first flight test vehicle (FTV1) has reached a speed of 120 knots on the ground.

Transport Canada issued FTV1 its flight-test permit on August 30, following a series of pre-flight tests including low-speed taxi runs. First expected to fly by the end of last year, the CSeries remains on the ground following the failure of Bombardier to meet two subsequent targets for first flight—one at the end of June and the other at the end of July. It blamed the most recent setback on integration delays involving certain unnamed systems.