Busy news Friday: BBD gets CSeries first flight clearance, AA-US get early DOJ court date

It’s an unusually busy news day for a Friday. Bombardier received its clearance from Transport Canada to conduct the first flight of the CSeries. BBD has not announced a date, which will be contingent upon weather and the airplane, but word has leaked out that BBD has a VIP event of some kind on Sept. 17, a Tuesday. The Toronto Globe and Mail reported the date but BBD told the paper that date remains tentative and it is not necessarily the date the first flight will take place. Reuters reports the first flight should precede the 17th. The Financial Post reports that the CSeries will fly during the Sept. 17 event, which is to celebrate the launch for the flight testing program.

BBD will webcast the first flight here.

Here is BBD’s press release about receiving Transport Canada’s authorization.

The other big news today is the win by American Airlines and US Airways for a November 25 trial date over the US Department of Justice lawsuit seeking to block the merger. The lawsuit is also holding up American’s exit from bankruptcy. The federal judge overseeing the bankruptcy case set a hearing on Sept. 12 on motions to approve AA’s exit.

DOJ sought a March trial date, a delay which would have effectively killed the merger as much as the lawsuit itself might. DOJ opposed the early date.

Separately, Boeing is conducting ground tests in preparation for the first flight of the 787-9. No date has been set for the flight.

10 Comments on “Busy news Friday: BBD gets CSeries first flight clearance, AA-US get early DOJ court date

      • That it does!

        All the photos (from Matt Cawby) I’ve seen of first engine starts show a lot of smoke, more smoke than I ever thought would be present. I don’t seem to recall gas turbine engine starts spewing so much smoke when I’ve seen them during routine operations at various airports. I wonder if this is caused by the burning of residual oils in the engine left over from manufacture or perhaps packaging?

  1. I wonder if the 787-9 will beat the FTV-1 into the air. Not really a race but I can see the Boeing PR people wringing their hands over how to time this one.

  2. First start burns surplus engine oil. No drama, maybe someone pured in some extra oil.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *