CS100 Flight Test Vehicle 1 (FTV1) during fuel flow testing. Photo: Bombardier Aerospace
Here’s what’s been going on with the Bombardier CSseries over the past few weeks:
Bombardier announced that their team had completed the CSeries Complete Airframe Static Testing (CAST) for Safety of Flight. This was the last of seven tests required for obtaining flight certification for the CS100 from Transport Canada. In step with the Static Testing, the CS100 ’œAircraft 0’ Integrated Systems Test Rig has been ’œflying’ since last August.
On June 4, Moscow-based leasing company Ilyushin Finance Co (IFC), firmed up its order for 32 CS300s, along with options for 10 more CS300s. That brings the CSeries firm orders up to 177 aircraft.
On the same day, it was revealed that Gulf Air is the previously undisclosed customer for 10 CS100s that have been part of the firm order book since June 2011. Gulf Air also holds options for 6 additional CS100s.
Bombardier’s President, Pierre Beaudoin, has said that they’re on schedule for the first flight of the CS100 by the end of June. There’s been speculation that the first flight would happen before the Paris Air Show, which starts June 17th. But Chet Fuller, Bombardier’s Senior Commercial VP dismissed the rumors. However, Flight Test Vehicle 1 (FTV1) was moved to Bombardier’s flight test centre last week.
And following up on our earlier story about Porter Airlines’ order for CS100s, Toronto City Council recently voted to hire independent consultants to analyze the Porter proposal. Porter’s order for 12 CS100s is conditional on getting a 500 foot extension built on each end of the main runway at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport (YTZ). Some results of the study will be reported to Toronto’s Executive Council in early July, with the issue expected to return to full council in November.
What do you think? Will FTV1 not fly until June 30th? Or will they try for the first flight while the Paris Air Show is on? If so, I’m thinking it would be great PR, and support for their marketing efforts at the show.
This story written by… Howard Slutsken, Correspondent. Howard has been an AvGeek since he was a kid, watching TCA Super Connies, Viscounts and early jets at Montreal’s Dorval Airport. He’s a pilot who loves to fly gliders and pretty well anything else with wings. Howard is based in Vancouver, BC.
From the video description from SpeedBirdHD: “The Boeing 747 is a wide-body commercial airliner and cargo transport aircraft, often referred to by its original nickname, Jumbo Jet, or Queen of the Skies. It is among the world’s most recognizable aircraft and was the first wide-body ever produced. Manufactured by Boeing’s Commercial Airplane unit in the United States, the original version of the 747 was two and a half times the size of the Boeing 707, one of the common large commercial aircraft of the 1960s. First flown commercially in 1970, the 747 held the passenger capacity record for 37 years.”
I am guessing probably most people reading this site are well aware of the 747. So less reading, more watching these amazing machines in action .
The world’s largest airline (based on scheduled passenger-kilometers flown) has recently changed up their employee couture. May 21, 2013 marked United Airline’s 25th anniversary at Newark’s Liberty International Airport (EWR) and felt it would make a great backdrop to show off their new uniforms.
United is the largest airline in the New York area and currently the sole tenant of Newark’s terminal C and the airport serves as their third-largest U.S. Hub. They have more than 13,000 local employees and offer more flights & seats from the region to more world-wide gateways than any other airline in history. Currently, United offers more than 400 flights daily from Newark.
Flying only 900 feet above Fiji was not too shabby.
A media flight is always a special event, but there are a few things that can make it even more special. So how special is a media flight that also happens to be a delivery flight flown by two Airbus “expert pilots” who preformed a 2 hour low altitude fly by with the airline CEO on board as well as the artist responsible for the airlines brand new image? Yea, that is special. What else could Air Pacific, soon to be Fiji Airways, possibly have added to this flight to make it more special? I can’t think of anything. This is the story of a small airline that made a big impression.
Air Pacific is re-branding in a big way, which I detailed in a review of their new Airbus A330. To help promote these big changes, Fiji Airways in cooperation with Tourism Fiji invited a small handful of travel bloggers and journalists, as well as one #AvGeek (me), to fly out to Fiji and witness the delivery ceremonies of their second new Airbus A330.
A Rendition of what a Lufthansa Cargo Boeing 777F will look like – Photo: Lufthansa Cargo
Two years ago an interesting order was placed with Boeing. One that might have slipped under the radar for most. This order didn’t really make all too many waves in the AvGeek world and to be honest, I didn’t even realize it myself till I was tipped off by a fellow AvGeek.
In March 2011 Lufthansa Cargo put in an order for five 777 freighters and this spurred a large amount of curiosity since it did not seem like the ideal choice to replace their aging fleet of 18 classic MD-11 aircraft.
