By Bjorn Fehrm

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Introduction

21July 2016, ©. Leeham Co: Bombardier”s CSeries project has passed one hurdle after another during its development. The last one was the lack of Marquee customers on top of launch customer SWISS. This has now been solved with large orders from Air Canada and Delta Air Lines.

There is one hurdle remaining: what will be the aircraft's reliability when it enters into service (EIS)?. We did the EIS interview with CSeries VP and program manager Rob Dewar only two days before the CS100 aircraft would fly its first operational sectors with Swiss last Friday. This autumn, airBaltic will put the larger CS300 into service.

Figure 1. Bombardier's program manager for the CSeries, Rob Dewar. Source: Bombardier

Summary

• The CSeries has been designed for in service reliability from the outset of the project.
• Systems and solutions have been primarily chosen for the in-service maturity on other platforms.
• Any deviation from this philosophy, like for Fly-By-Wire, Geared Turbo Fan or Electrical brakes, requires that the technology earn its place in the project by bringing unique advantages.