John Eacott, they flew 31002 around for a couple of years at 7100kg and it all worked fine. Can't remember where I saw the report on it.
Edit: Here is a photo of 31002 flying at 7100kg with the Goodrich landing gear. Also it is testing the Enhanced Long Nose rear cowling.
Notice the strain gauges on the tailboom, probably checking the twisting at the increased gross weight. From what I heard, the tests were very successful and showed that the stresses between 6.8 and 7.1 were basically the same.
Interesting to see that after all these years it still has the old passenger doors with the external carriage/roller mechanism and with the door handles identical to the pilots. Not sure why that was changed on production machines.
http://www.jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=7284882
It did have the heavyweight landing gear (Goodrich) on it though, like the 189 gear. This is now available on the 139 as an (expensive) option.
I heard the new tailboom will be standard for all new 139's so I don't think it will just be for a possible 7k machine. Mind you I've also hear talk of a new fuselage as well to improve upon the "Enhanced" Long Nose fuselage.
We shall see.....
Tottigol, speaking of the 7.5k EC175, why aren't they delivering any if it has been certified for so long?