MIRABEL, Quebec: Bombardier Inc’s CSeries jetliner took flight for the first time yesterday, the culmination of a $3.4bn programme to develop the first all-new narrow-body plane of its size in decades.
Bombardier says the CSeries, designed to carry up to 149 passengers, will be the world’s quietest commercial aircraft. It represents the Canadian company’s attempt to break into the hyper-competitive, larger aircraft segment currently ruled by Boeing Co and Airbus.
The white-and-blue CS100 test aircraft took off from outside the Bombardier plant in Mirabel, Quebec, at 9.54am EDT (1354 GMT) in front of a crowd of employees, media and spectators.
While the thousands of spectators and engineers cheered, the plane rose from the tarmac with surprisingly little noise thanks to its new engines.
“It was great. You could hardly hear the take-off,” said Martin Gauss, chief executive of Latvian carrier AirBaltic, which has ordered 10 of the larger CS300 planes, which seat 130 passengers.
“This was one of the reasons why we bought it, along with the cost savings from lower fuel burn,” he said, speaking by telephone after watching the take-off yards away from the runway.
Gauss, speaking by phone, said he would begin discussions with Bombardier about increasing the airline’s order by dipping into its options for 10 additional planes. AirBaltic has not yet decided how many of these options it will exercise.
The maiden flight was expected to conclude shortly after noon EDT, ending where it began at Mirabel. Testing of the CSeries is being closely watched by airlines and other plane makers.
Airlines looking to purchase new planes want to see proof of Bombardier’s claims of high fuel efficiency, low operating costs and low noise levels for the CSeries, a medium-haul jet made of light-weight composite materials.
Competitors will eye the performance of the plane’s systems and components, most notably its PurePower PW1500G turbofan engine made by Pratt & Whitney, a unit of Connecticut-based United Technologies Corp.
“The CSeries has already caused an earthquake in the airliner industry. That’s what caused Boeing and Airbus to redesign their airplanes,” said Michael Boyd, chairman of the aviation consulting group Boyd Group International.
“The CSeries, on paper, was so superior in terms of economics that you have two global companies that had to jump from what Bombardier did.”
Airbus and Boeing announced new-engine versions of their respective A320 and 737 class aircraft after Bombardier unveiled its plans for the CSeries.
The two big companies have won more than 3,500 orders for those planes, although only a small portion are for the smaller models that compete directly with the CSeries.
Brazil’s Embraer SA, the world’s No. 3 planemaker, leads in sales of smaller regional jets.
Montreal-based Bombardier, which also makes trains, is hoping to stake a claim on the single-aisle, 100- to 149-seat class that is midway between the regional planes and the larger commercial jetliners. It says it can corner half that market over the next 20 years.
The CS100 seats 110 for a typical configuration, while the larger CS300 seats 135. Another version of the CS300 can seat up to 160.
Reuters
