7/25/2013

The long wait...

Two days, two announcements, two delays: yesterday Bombardier told the aviation public that the CSeries will not fly in July for the first time, but in „the coming weeks“.

Today Mitsubishi Aircraft announced that the MRJ will not fly this year, but until the end of 2014  - a full one year delay (again). This is of course disappointing. According to the article Mitsubishi still has problems how to document the design and the production of the parts to be compliant with certification rules (this is my interpretation, based on what was the reason for the last delay). At least, it seems, there seems nothing wrong with the design of the aircraft itself.
The same can be said for the CSeries – hopefully! It seems that the integration of the software takes more time than planned. The question is why until now the Bombardier executives always build up pressure by announcing exactly when first flight will happen. Airbus with the A350 was smarter by only saying first flight would happen in the second half of 2013 and the surprising the aviation world by beating that target by two weeks. At least Bombardier has learned now by being vague. On the other side that does not build up confidence, especially because fixed dates were given three times before (end of 2012, end of June 2013, in July 2013). So everyone who waits for this first all-new narrowbody since the A320 first flew in 26 years ago in 1987 should hope that “in the coming weeks” does mean in the “next low single digit number of weeks”.