Now that the flight test program is back flying we are tracking progress again. Although total hours appear to be just shy of 12% of target hours, we understand the program is getting credit for CIASTA hours. So ~12% of target flight hours is probably understated.
It’s interesting to note that before the A350 and CSeries made their respective maiden flight many of us were not sure which one would be the first to take to the air. But as the recent certification of the A350 makes clear there was never really a contest.
But that is not because Bombardier was less prepared than Airbus. On the contrary, Bombardier did all it had to do in terms of planning and preparation. But its lack of experience and industrial might played against the CSeries. And to a certain extent luck played a role as well. After all the engine problems were not their own. And it could also be argued that they did not design the faulty software.
Maybe not directly their fault but as a system integrator they have a responsibility to identify failures as early as possible. Could the engine problems have been identified pre-fight? Could the software problems have been tested using some sort of test rig earlier on? We probably won’t find out the answers to these questions, but I think only Bombardier has themselves to blame. Likely they feel the same way which is why they are restructuring.
At the end of the day the case was to match and exceed HS gains Embraer made with their Ejets. Bombardier’s woes are not the bugs on the CSeries, which is a good plane but the results of a bad management decision to stretch the crj from rj 200 to the rj 700. Had BBD pursued the plane from ’98 they would have dominated their market segment. From my perspective BBD never took Embraer as a real threat and that arrogant bravado was passed on to their workforce. We used to laugh at the mere mention of Embraer dismissing them as amateurs. Who’s laughing now. Even with all the technological bell whistles and composites the CSeries can’t seem to dislodge its competitors especially Embraer. May the next generation will have a better strategy.
To try and compare the two is really not reasonable. A350 has a development of the most mature FBW system in the entire industry. Also, Airbus just came of a difficult A380 dev/cert cycle so they had recent and painful experience. This is the first clean sheet plane BBD has developed in quite a while. After the engine related standown, FTV 2 is showing impressive maturity and delivering a very high cadence. Well done BBD.
Yes it is true BBD did miss the boat to a degree, I still think Cseries is the right size to take them to new heights, and it will do very well. Ryan Air CEO says 500 feeder routes in Europe are not profitable, many of those are flown by A320-A319. You can bet the numbers will be MUCH better with CS100 or 300. At least they can break even maybe.
They couldn’t pursue that particular plane from ’98, since it is not originally ‘their’ plane… they only got the blueprints from the then-insolvent Fairchild Dornier company, which was then the Do728. Although BBD modified the original design a little and deleted some high-end technologies, but decided to wait for the maturity of the new geared turbofan… the demise of the Do728/928 was what gave the miserable E-Jets the sales kick they wld have never seen otherwise…. and the CRJ700/900 would not have sold a single unit.