Bombardier rules Canadian skies

Bombardier Global Express 8000.
- Photo courtesy Bombardier
Bombardier Global Express 8000. - Photo courtesy Bombardier

Bombardier Inc is a Canadian jet aircraft manufacturer with headquarters in Montreal.

The company was founded in 1942 by French-Canadian inventor and businessman Joseph-Armand Bombardier to market the snowmobiles he had invented.

Bombardier later became one of the world's biggest producers of regional aircraft and trains.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the company diversified into public transport vehicles and commercial jets and became a multinational corporation. It grew particularly fast at the end of the 1980s, when its turnover multiplied sixfold within six years.

At that time, it was North America's largest producer of railway vehicles, Canada's leading aerospace company and a renowned worldwide snowmobile manufacturer.

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The growth was thanks to buying failing government-owned companies at a low price and then restructuring them into successful turnaround companies.

Bombardier Aviation is a division of Bombardier Inc. It is headquartered in Dorval, Quebec, Canada.

Its most popular aircraft included the line of De Havilland Canada DHC-8 commonly known as the Dash 8. It is a series of turboprop-powered regional airliners, introduced by De Havilland Canada (DHC) in 1984. DHC was bought by Boeing in 1986, then by Bombardier in 1992 and by Longview Aviation Capital in 2019.

Longview revived the De Havilland Canada brand. Powered by two Pratt & Whitney Canada PW150s, it was developed from the Dash 7 with improved cruise performance and lower operational costs. The Dash 8 was offered in four sizes: the initial Series 100, the more powerful Series 200 with 37-40 seats, the Series 300 with 50-56 seats, and Series 400 with 68-90 seats.

The Q Series (Q for quiet) are post-1997 variants fitted with active noise-control systems.

The Bombardier Challenger 600 series is a family of business jets developed by Canadair and then produced in 1986 by its new owner, Bombardier Aerospace.

At the end of 1975, Canadair began funding the development of Lear Star 600 jet and then bought the design for a wide-cabin business jet in April 1976.

The programme was launched on October 29 of the same year, backed by the Canadian federal government and designed to comply with new FAA Part 25 Standards.

In 1986, Canadair was close to bankruptcy and was bought by Bombardier.

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The Challenger jet was later stretched into the Bombardier CRJ regional airliner, introduced on October 19, 1992, and the longer-range Global Express, introduced in July 1999.

The 500th Challenger was rolled out in May 2000, and the 1,000th was delivered to NetJets in December 2015. By October 2018, 1,066 aircraft had been built.

The Challenger is a low-wing jet powered by two rear-mounted turbofan engines. The original Lycoming ALF 502 turbofan engines were replaced by two General Electric CF34s engines.

The aircraft first flew on April 10, 1982. Subsequent variants have updated systems, avionics and higher takeoff and landing weights.

The Bombardier Global Express business jet is a large-cabin, long-range business jet designed and manufactured by Bombardier Aviation. Announced in October 1991, it first flew in October 1996, received its Canadian-type certification in July 1998 and entered service in July 1999.

The CRJ family has its origins in the design of the earlier Canadair Challenger business jet.

During the late 1970s, the relatively wide fuselage of the Challenger, which could seat a pair of passengers on each side of a central aisle, was observed by Canadair officials who suggested it would be straightforward to produce a stretch of the aircraft to accommodate more seats. Therefore, in 1980, the company publicised its proposal for an expanded model of the aircraft, designated as the Challenger 610E, which would provide seating for an additional 24 passengers. However, this did not occur; work on the programme stopped the following year.

Despite the cancellation of the 610E, neither the concept nor general interest in the development of an enlarged derivative had disappeared.

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In 1987, after Bombardier bought Canadair, design studies started on options for producing a substantially more ambitious stretched configuration of the Challenger.

In early 1989, these investigations directly led to the formal launch of the Canadair Regional Jet Programme. It was decided to retain the "Canadair" name, although Bombardier had bought the firm. The programme was launched with the aim of selling at least 400 aircraft.

SkyWest Airlines, a regional airline, was the first US-based customer, placing an order for ten aircraft in 1989, before the programme was officially launched.

Bombardier designed and manufactured the Canadair Regional Jets (CRJ)100/200/440 between 1991 and 2006, the first of the Bombardier CRJ family.

Later came the CRJ700/900/1000 series of regional airliners. It also manufactured the newer CSeries also known as the Airbus A220 and the Bombardier 415 amphibious water-bomber.

The Regional Jet Programme benefited from the support of the Canadian government. The break-even point for the type was considered relatively low amongst its competitors.

It was speculated that the bankruptcy and purchase of Learjet by Bombardier in 1990 allowed for the development costs of the Challenger to be written off, which in turn had the impact of substantially lowering the cost of the regional jet programme. In addition, the projected operating costs of the CRJ were lower than some of its turboprop-powered rivals, including the Fokker 50, the ATR-42, and the Bombardier Dash 8.

On May 10, 1991, the first of three development aircraft for the initial CRJ100 variant made its first flight from Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport, starting a 1,000-hour flight test programme with three prototypes. The 50-seat aircraft is powered by two rear-mounted GE CF34 turbofan engines.

The first CRJ100 prototype made its maiden flight on May 10, 1991. The type certificate was issued by Transport Canada on October 29, 1992. The CRJ 100, Canada's first jet airliner, entered commercial service in 1992.

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The CRJ200 has more efficient turbofan engines for lower fuel consumption, and increased cruise altitude and speed. During the late 1990s, it was stretched into the CRJ700 series.

Production ended in 2006, but many CRJs remain in service. In 2020, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries bought the entire CRJ line from Bombardier.

Bombardier currently manufactures the Global Express and the Challenger lines of business jets.

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"Bombardier rules Canadian skies"

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