Third Member of CRJ Family Makes First Flight

On Wednesday, February 21st, Bombardier's latest CRJ prototype, the 86-seat CRJ900, made its first flight from Montreal's Mirabel airport.

The two hour and 54 minute flight was flown by Capt. Chuck Ellis and co-pilot Craig Tylski along with Flight Engineer Jeff Hyde, who described it as "flawless". The flight was designed to investigate basic manoeuvrability and systems -- departing at 10:46 and returning at 13:40 EST. The 900 climbed to a total altitude of 35,000 feet.

The second test CRJ900 will be an all-new aircraft , with the serial #15001 (the first flight prototype was a stretched CRJ700 prototype-registration C-FRJX). Aircraft #15001 will start flight testing later this year. Both aircraft will do the bulk of their testing at the Bombardier Flight Test Centre in Wichita, Kansas, leading to planned certification in late 2002 and first customer delivery in early 2003.

March 2, 2001