Bombardier's CSeries jet makes first flight
After an eightmonth delay, the Canadian company finally put its latest jet, which can carry up to 125 passengers, in the air.
Most casual aviation observers have followed the progress of new airplanes like Boeing's 787, or Airbus' A380. But for the hard-core fans, Monday offered a reason for excitement: the first flight of Bombardier's new CSeries jet.
Taking off at 12:22 p.m. ET from Montreal's Mirabel Airport, the CS100 -- a regional jet that can carry between 108 and 125 passengers -- took to the sky for a two-and-a-half hour journey. A big part of the test flight was to see how the airplane's Pratt & Whitney PW1524G engines performed.
To date, according to Airchive.com, which was on hand for the first flight, the CSeries program has cost Bombardier about $3.5 billion. It is hoping that airlines around the world will adopt the plane instead of regional jet competitors like Mitsubishi's Regional Jet; Irkut's MC-21;Embraer's new E-jet E2 series; and even Airbus' A320 and Boeing's 737.
According to Airchive, airlines around the world have ordered a total of 177 CS100s and its larger, 130- to 160-passenger counterpart, the CS300.