Story ID: GPcseries10252011
Bombardier's C Series Still on Schedule: Dewar
By: Gregory Polek
Caption: Bombardier C Series is on track for first flight in 2012.
Word Count: 405
Bombardier expects to complete all the so-called data sets for the C Series airliner by year-end, as the Canadian company continues its deliberate march toward a second-half 2012 first flight of the 100- to 125-seat CS100.
The C Series program has progressed “well over” half way through its detailed design phase, according to Rob Dewar, program vice president and general manager. Several parts have already arrived at supplier sites and at Bombardier’s Complete Integrated Aircraft Systems Test Area (CIASTA) in Mirabel, Quebec. CIASTA is used to assess systems for reliability and functionality before the first prototype flies.
Dewar recently told AIN that the first deliveries of systems components had started, as suppliers began commissioning their rigs. Those suppliers need anywhere between three to six months to “mature” their own systems to ensure they function as planned. Once they do that, the systems arrive at CIASTA, where Bombardier performs the integration tests.
Bombardier expected Parker Aerospace to commission the fly-by-wire system by the beginning of this month, followed by the electrical system by Hamilton Sundstrand next month. Because the avionics system communicates with virtually all the other systems on the airplane and contains so much software, it requires more testing and integration work than do the other systems and so gets commissioned first, Dewar explained. Critical systems scheduled to run at CIASTA include the electrical system, hydraulics, the fly-by-wire system, the avionics and the FADEC.
Bombardier had completed construction on the building in which CIASTA resides and put in place all the infrastructure by the end of the summer. A number of systems, including the generators, the avionics and wing leading edges had all arrived “on dock” in Mirabel. “Again, there’s a wave of parts that continue to arrive on a daily basis,” said Dewar.
Since February 2010 Bombardier has seen better than satisfactory results during the testing of the airplane’s aluminum-lithium fuselage test barrel, built by China’s Shenyang Aircraft. Former Bombardier Commercial Aircraft president Gary Scott, who unceremoniously retired in the midst of the program as of October 1, had told AIN that he expected Shenyang to start putting together actual subassemblies by the start of this year. However, Shenyang didn’t finish building its factory until “late March or April,” said Dewar, and Bombardier doesn’t expect to receive the first fuselage package until the middle of next year.