Commercial Jet Focus: Bombardier CSeries
Canadian manufacturer Bombardier Aerospace is hoping to take on Airbus and Boeing at their own game with an all-new family of aircraft specifically designed for the 100 to 149-seat commercial jet market.
Bombardier began flight tests on its much-anticipated CSeries aircraft in September and the company hopes to deliver the first jets by late 2014.
While the CSeries 100 and its extended -300 model will be placed in direct competition with aircraft such as the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 families, Bombardier is hoping its new flagship offering will provide operators with an attractive alternative in the narrow-body market.
If one thing has got potential buyers sitting up and listening, it’s the promise that the CSeries is at the forefront of a new era of super-quiet commercial jets. Much noise has been made about Pratt & Whitney’s new Geared Turbofan PurePower engine technology which offers a very quiet flight experience and very low fuel burn.
“The promise of a quieter, more fuel efficient flight could make the CSeries an attractive addition to the group air charter market in future years,” says Chetan Khurana, charter sales manager at Chapman Freeborn India.
“Bombardier could have a winner on its hands if it lives up to the promise of lowering operating costs. This would be a boon to all operators reeling under high jet fuel prices which can constitute around 40 per cent of total operating costs.”
Shailendra Seth, director at Chapman Freeborn India adds: “Bombardier needs to ensure that their pricing and after sales service is top notch to break into the market usually dominated by A320 and B737 families”
While advanced sales have been more sluggish than Bombardier would like, the order book is now starting to fill up with commitments from clients including Deutsche Lufthansa, Korean Air and Ilyushin Finance Co, among others.
Specifications:
Both CS100 and CS300 can accommodate 2 pilots in the cockpit crew, with 2 to 5 flight attendants in CS100 and 3 to 5 flight attendants in CS300.
The passenger capacity is 110 for CS100 and 135 for CS300. Length of the CS100 is about 114.8ft and 127ft for CS300. The MTOW for CS100 is 130000 lb. whereas for CS300 is 143999lb. Both the models come with the 2x Pratt & Whitney PW 1500G engines.
Also the take-off run at MTOW is 4800ft for CS100 and 6200ft for CS300.
As of 30th September 2013, CS100 is reported in the media to have 63 firm orders and the CS300 114 firm orders (total firm orders of 177).
For more information visit the official CSeries website.
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Photos appear courtesy of Bombardier Aerospace.
