Bombardier Resumes CSeries Flight Tests: Canadian Company Had Halted Test Flights After an Engine Failure in May

The Wall Street Journal
By  Jon Ostrower
Sept. 7, 2014 6:42 p.m. ET

Bombardier Inc. said on Sunday it resumed test flights of its CSeries jet, after being grounded for more than three months following a major engine failure.

One of the 110-seat CSeries jet test aircraft departed the company's Mirabel, Québec, facility late Sunday afternoon, kicking off a return to its flight-test campaign that the Canadian transportation company aims to complete by the second half of 2015.

One of its four active test aircraft on May 29 suffered a major failure of its Pratt & Whitney geared turbofan engines, putting a halt to test flying while the engine maker devised a modification to the oil system, which was identified as the failure's root cause.

Bombardier on Sept. 5 announced test flying would resume by the end of September after the company's second test aircraft was rolled out that same day with updated Pratt engines. Pratt & Whitney is a unit of United Technologies Corp.

The CSeries competes with the smallest single-aisle jets from Boeing Co. and Airbus Group NV.

- Source:  http://online.wsj.com