Bombardier CS300 flyr i morgen

Dette er flyet Braathens skulle bruke innenlands i Norge for å konkurrere med Widerøe. Såvidt jeg vet ble bestillingen kansellert på grunn av forsinkelser.

New Bombardier Jet Due to Fly Thursday

CS300 aircraft can seat 130 to 160 passengers

Bombardier Inc. confirmed the company is targeting Thursday for the maiden flight of its new CSeries CS300 jetliner.

The CS300, which can seat 130 to 160 passengers, is the larger of two single-aisle jets developed to compete with the smallest aircraft made by Airbus Group NV and Boeing Co. , but the Canadian company has struggled to secure orders and faced design issues that have pushed back its expected entry into service.

Cash-strapped Bombardier, which recently installed a new chief executive officer and completed a $750 million equity offering, has secured 243 firm orders for the CSeries, with around two-thirds of them for the larger CS300. The all-new jets feature carbon-fiber composite wings and a wider cabin.

Bombardier last week was granted approvals from Transport Canada, the country's aviation regulator and said it had targeted a window of Feb. 26-28 for the jet's first flight, heavily dependent on the frigid winter weather in northern Quebec. The company said it completed high-speed taxi and braking test runs earlier this week.

The first model, the CS100, began flight trials in September 2013 and is slated to enter service in the second half of 2015, about two years beyond Bombardier's original plan. Supply-chain and technical challenges have slowed the jet's development, but its test fleet has so far completed more than 1,000 of the planned 2,400 fight testing hours.

The CS300, which is due to fly Thursday at the company's Mirabel, Quebec, facility, features a longer fuselage to seat additional passengers, and is expected to be certified by aviation authorities six months after the first smaller model.