CRJ-1000 Makes First Flight

Bombardier's long and skinny CRJ-1000 prototype took to the Canadian skies for the first time during its maiden flight yesterday from their production facility at the Mirabel Airport in Montreal, Quebec. During the 25 minute flight, the CRJ-1000 reached an altitude of 30,000 feet and flew at a maximum speed of 260 knots. "We put the gear up, operated the flaps and slats and exercised our new 'fly-by-wire' rudder," says Jacques Thibaudeau, one of the test-flight crew members. Bombardier is saying it handles much like the CRJ-900 so transitioning flight crews to the larger 100-seater should be no problem. After a few more flights, the prototype will be flown to Bombardier's Test Flight Centre at Mid-Continent Airport in Wichita where it will be joined next year by the first production aircraft for its flight operations review and certification process. Entry into service is expected in the fourth quarter of 2009. Hopefully, the PointNiner crew will get a chance to see her during the testing phase like we have with the other CRJ stretches as Wichita is just down the road from our base of operations.



Pictures: Bombardier
[Bombardier via Flight Global]

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New 787 cockpit shots from Flightblogger

Can I have this guy's job? Flightblogger has posted up some brand new 787 shots from the Spirit Aerosystems plant in Wichita. These show an entirely complete 787 flight deck. Do the airlines get excited to remove all the plastic coverings from their planes, like I get excited to do with my new toys? The bottom shot shows Dreamliner 4, 5, 6, and 7 forward fuselage sections lined up being prepped for the trip to Everett, WA. Now if he can somehow get a shot of the flight deck after the power on tests of Dreamliner 1 at Boeing. I'd love to see one of these babies all lit up.






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