Bombardier CSeries fleet grows to three

Bombardier have slowly been working on its new CSeries Aircraft, with the test aircraft fleet growing to a total of three aircraft – with FTV3 taking to the skies

FTV3 in flight – Image Bombardier Aerospace.

FTV3 joins its fellow aircraft – FTV1 and FTV2 in the flight testing programme that has lasted 8 months so far, and has racked up about 100 test hours in total – something Bombardier needs to work on as they move to certification of the aircraft for civil use.

This aircraft is based on the CS100 aircraft Bombardier wish to introduce to airlines.

CSeries orders haven’t been coming thick and fast, but are reasonable across the two sub-types to be offered:

• 63 CS100 (the smaller variant)
• 138 CS300 (the larger variant)

A total of 201 aircraft on the books.

The CSeries is quite important as it will show off a new generation of aircraft engine – The “Geared TurboFan” (with the unit using Pratt & Whitney PW1500G engines – the first application of these new engines that will feature heavily in new aircraft (the next generation Embraer E-Jets, the Mitsubishi MRJ and the Airbus A320neo series), with promised of fuel savings of 10 to 15% compared to current engine designs.

Still an aircraft to watch.