Bombardier CSeries first flight

[UPDATE #3] Hello “whisper jet” – a title given by Porter’s CEO.

[UPDATE #2] What started out as a dark and rainy morning in Montreal this morning turned into a glorious day with blue skies as a cold front cleared Mirabel airport early this morning, enabling the first flight of the CSeries aircraft. FTV1, a CS100, took to the skies this morning to a crowd of more than 3,000 in attendance at Mirabel airport, the production site for the aircraft north of Montreal.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the first flight on the CSeries is that most of the audience didn’t notice that the CSeries was in its takeoff run until it was halfway down the runway. The take-off run was incredibly quiet, and even quieter than the Global 5000 chase plane that took off just before it. And the Global 5000 is a quiet airplane in itself. Clearly, the noise benefits of the CSeries, and the Pratt and Whitney PW1500G engines have been demonstrated quite early in the test program – on the first takeoff.

This marks a milestone in the CSeries program, and will be significant to marketing efforts as Bombardier will be able to confirm their projected aircraft performance and economics, important to securing additional potential customers.

[UPDATE #1 – track the flight live here. The CS100 will be known as CS10 in GDS systems]

We will be offering reports later in the day from the event. Here we see the CSeries take to the sky for the first time.