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Bombardier new C Series transcontinental jet faces potential development problems that are similar to difficulties Boeing Co. has experienced with its 787 Dreamliner aircraft, according to a Boeing executive.

"They will have some of the challenges we've been having with the 787," Randy Tinseth, vice-president of marketing at Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said during a presentation on the global civil aviation market Thursday.

"They're bringing in partners they have never worked with before" and there is a risk involved in that, Mr. Tinseth said.

Boeing announced last Friday that it's much-vaunted 787 will not be delivered until next year, the latest in a string of delays that has pushed the project back by more than two years.

The latest snafu is a delay in the availability of a Rolls-Royce engine to be used in the final phases of flight testing.

Mr. Tinseth said the risk level rises as you move into development of more complex, technologically advanced aircraft and Bombardier - whose bread and butter is smaller regional aircraft, business jets and turboprops - is taking on a lot with its clean-sheet C Series single-aisle jet in the 110- to 145-seat range.

"I think Bombardier has some challenges on the C Series," he said.

"We think the airplane will be good. We just don't think it will be as good as advertised," he added.

Guy Hachey, head of the Bombardier Aerospace division, said Wednesday that the C Series program is on schedule and expressed confidence that the company can avoid the delays experienced by Boeing with its 787.

With the C Series, Montreal-based Bombardier is bumping up against the lower end of aircraft manufactured by Boeing and European giant Airbus SAS.

Mr. Tinseth said Boeing is still mulling whether or not to put a new engine on its 737 aircraft in order to better meet the challenge from the Bombardier C Series and planes from other entrants in the 100- to 200-seat category. Other options being looked at include developing an all-new model, he said.

Airbus is also considering whether or not to re-engine its planes in that segment.









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