Bombardier Has Another Delay In Getting The New Jet Airborne

Bombardier had hoped to fly the new Learjet 85 before 2013 ended, but on December 31, it announced that there would be another delay in getting the airplane flying.

Bombardier had planned the airplane's first flight early in 2013, but pushed that projection back by nine months in February citing a problem with the manufacture of all-composite fuselage at a plant in Mexico.

Media reports indicate that the planemaker said that issue was resolved in October, and that a first flight would be coming by the end of the year. But now, the company will only say that a first flight is planned "in the coming weeks," the same wording it used as it approached the first flight of the CSeries airliner last year.

In October, Bombardier towed a Learjet 85 that looked complete out of a hangar in Wichita for a press event, and a month later it reported in a financial document that the airplane had nearly completed testing to assure safety of flight. Now, it says it will file an application for a flight test permit with the FAA "shortly."

The Learjet 85 is scheduled to enter service in the third quarter of 2014.

(Image provided by Bombardier)

FMI: www.bombardier.com