Montreal, Canada – Bombardier officials confirmed Friday Sept. 5, 2014, that the modified engines for the CSeries flight test vehicles have successfully completed the testing required for return to flight test. The first set of engines has now been re-installed and following engine runs and other pre-requisite steps, CSeries aircraft flight testing will resume with FTV2 in September 2014.
“Following the pause of the CSeries aircraft flight test program on May 29, 2014, Pratt & Whitney and Bombardier finalized a solution that Pratt has since incorporated into the engine’s oil lubrication system. We are pleased to confirm that Pratt has now completed the first set of modified engines with full flight clearance approval from the relevant authorities including Transport Canada. As such, Bombardier will resume flight testing activities this month,” said Rob Dewar, vice president, CSeries Program, Bombardier Commercial Aircraft. “In spite of the flight test program pause, we are still confident that entry-into-service will take place in the second half of 2015.”
During the flight testing pause, the CSeries aircraft program continued to make headway with engineering teams utilizing the down-time to complete additional ground tests; configuration and software upgrades; training for EIS; telemetry and system analysis based on data collected so far; and a number of other activities that would have been required per the schedule.
Source: Bombardier