9/16/2013: Bombardier's CS100, the Jet That Became the Airbus A220, Flies for the First Time

DALLAS — Today, in 2013, Bombardier's CSeries flew for the first time, from Montréal–Mirabel International Airport (YMX) in Quebec.

The aircraft was flight test vehicle one (FTV1), a CS100 registered C-FBCS. According to Bombardier's first-flight announcement, chief flight test pilot Chuck Ellis took off at about 09:55 EDT with first officer Andy Litavniks and flight test engineer Andreas Hartono, and landed back at Mirabel at about 12:25. The jet reached 12,500ft and 230kt, and the crew cycled the flaps and landing gear, flew maneuvers including a simulated landing, and made early checks of the flight control system.

It had been a long road. CBC News reported that the program had taken almost 10 years and about $3.5 billion to reach that first flight. Bombardier's board had approved the CSeries in July 2008, when launch customer Lufthansa signed a letter of interest for up to 60 aircraft, 30 of them options, and entry into service was planned for 2013. Testing continued with, as Simple Flying records, a second flight on October 1, 2013.

From CSeries to A220

The first paying passengers came nearly three years later. On July 15, 2016, a SWISS (LX) CS100 flew from Zurich to Paris Charles de Gaulle on the type's first commercial flight.

The larger CS300 had already flown. It took off from Mirabel on its first flight on February 27, 2015, and launch operator airBaltic (BT) carried the variant's first commercial passengers from Riga to Amsterdam on December 14, 2016. The carrier has since unveiled its 50th A220-300.

Airbus took a majority stake in C Series Aircraft Limited Partnership, the Mirabel-based company building the jet, effective July 1, 2018, and renamed the aircraft the A220 on July 10. The partnership itself became Airbus Canada Limited Partnership on June 1, 2019.

A second production site followed in the United States. Airbus began building A220s in Mobile, Alabama in August 2019 and inaugurated a dedicated A220 final assembly line there in May 2020, while Mirabel remained the program's headquarters and primary production site.

Bombardier left the program in February 2020, when it transferred its remaining shares to Airbus and the Government of Québec, leaving them with 75% and 25%. In July 2024 the two partners extended Québec's stake to 2035.

The Aircraft

The A220 flies on Pratt & Whitney's PW1500G geared turbofan, which Airbus says was tailored specifically for the aircraft. Airbus lists a maximum range of 3,600nm for the A220-100 and 3,450nm for the A220-300, and describes composites in the wings, an aluminum-lithium fuselage and full fly-by-wire controls.

Ten years after SWISS carried the first passengers, Airbus says that by the time Mirabel delivered the 500th A220 in 2026, the type was flown by 25 operators, had won more than 1,000 firm orders and had carried more than 240 million passengers.

The featured image shows the CS100 taking off for its maiden flight from YMX in Quebec on September 16, 2013.