Bombardier Cseries still on the ground
MONTREAL — It’s now three — and counting. Bombardier Inc. again announced a delay of “several weeks” for its CSeries’ maiden flight Wednesday.
The airliner was originally scheduled to fly by the end of last year.
That date was pushed back six months to the end of June last fall, and by another month on June 26.
Company spokesperson Marc Duchesne would not be more precise than “a few weeks” when putting a timetable on the latest delay.
“But first flight won’t be in July.”
Analyst Walter Spracklin of RBC Dominion Securities said in a note to clients that “management credibility may be affected with each subsequent delay, and should additional issues crop up,” investors may not be as forgiving as they have been with previous delays.
The company said it needs more time to integrate the various systems, including software programs.
“The CSeries aircraft’s overall integration is progressing well,” the company said. “However, the highly technical last steps are taking more time than initially anticipated to validate the overall systems and ongoing software integration. First flight is expected to occur in the coming weeks.”
The fly-by-wire and avionics systems are not presenting any particular issues and are progressing well, Duchesne said.
Fly-by-wire, a sophisticated flight-controls integration system, was singled out by the company as a specific area of concern in 2011.
Mike Arcamone, president of Bombardier Commercial Aircraft, said that “while the process has taken more time than we had expected, we are pleased with the results and are very comfortable taking more time to ensure the required integration is finalized and the CSeries aircraft is cleared for its first flight.”
Duchesne said the new technology aircraft’s certification process with Transport Canada is also proceeding normally and “is going well.” Bombardier needs approval from the regulator to fly the aircraft.
Bombardier said it also expects the flight test permit for its FTV1 (Flight Test Vehicle One) “in the coming weeks.”
But Spracklin said that after the Lac-Megantic disaster of July 6 that killed dozens of people, that permit “remains a key risk for first flight, in our view.”
The CSeries includes new technologies and untested systems and components, Spracklin noted.
“We assume that (Bombardier) has worked closely with Transport Canada to ensure that the testing would meet permitting requirements; however, with recent transportation accidents, we assume that Transport Canada is applying additional levels of due diligence.”
“Transport Canada was aware of Bombardier’s business decision made public today. The department is prepared to process Bombardier’s application for the flight permit.
“Any further questions should be directed to Bom- bardier,” Transport Canada spokesperson Kelly James said.
Bombardier said that integration of its Pratt & Whitney new technology engines, the CSeries’ most important innovation that is slated to provide the airliner with a major fuel burn advantage, “is running smoothly ... on the first flight-test vehicle.”
Software upgrades are also being “successfully completed” as the aircraft is back in the hangar on a large scaffolding platform.
Software changes are made as systems and components are tested, according to the way each responds to integration.
Spracklin said that despite the “third official delay ... increments are getting shorter (from six months, one month, to a few weeks) — we are just hoping that the path to the first flight finish line is not asymptotic.”
(Asymptotic is a mathematical term that denotes getting ever closer to a line but never actually reaching it.)
Duchesne said that Bombardier’s credibility is not being as hard hit as were those of Boeing Co. and Airbus SAS, which were years late on all their recent aircraft development programs — the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and the Airbus A380 and A350.