Bombardier’s CS300 Airliner Completes First Test Flight

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Bombardier’s new CS300 airliner completed its first test flight Friday, a success that the company hopes is part of a larger recovery from its struggles to develop the CSeries line of passenger jets. The jet departed Mirabel Airport near Montreal Friday morning and reached an altitude of 41,000 feet and a speed of 255 knots during the five-hour test flight.The CS300 is a single-aisle airliner that will carry up to 160 passengers and is the larger version of the CS100.“The CS300 airliner will now join the five CS100 aircraft flight test vehicles that have amassed more than 1,000 flight test hours to date,” said Rob Dewar, vice president of Bombardier’s CSeries Program. “We are confident the CS100 aircraft will be certified in the second half of 2015, followed closely by entry-into-service. The CS300airliner is expected to follow about six months later.”

Bombardier has suffered setbacks developing the CSeries line with cost overruns and delays, including an engine fire during ground testing last May. The company also paused its Learjet 85 program in January to help focus its efforts on the CSeries. “We’ve been struggling, we have had our share of challenges because of just the pure workload of developing such a complex and high-tech aircraft … but we’re getting close to the goal line so I feel good about where we are,” CEO Alain Bellemare told reporters in a CSeries hangar Friday.

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