Bombardier CRJ: the history of top regional aircraft

Bombardier as we know it now is one of the leading manufacturers  of planes, namely commercial passenger aircraft family CRJ. But initially Bombardier established in Valcourt, Quebec, Canada on July 10, 1942 started as a maker of snowmobiles.

The aviation history of Bombardier started in 1986 when the company acquired Canadair Regional Jet (CRJ) – and that is where the name CRJ comes from. Acquisition took place when the Canadian government-owned aircraft manufacturing company recorded the largest corporate loss in Canadian history.  

Bombardier redesigned the concept of the company to launch a new aircraft based on Challenger 600 with General Electric GE-CF34 engines.  

The aircraft made it first flight in 1991 and in 1992 the company supplied the first CRJ-100 to Lufthansa. The regional commercial aviation market as we know it now was not the same in 1992. This was in a sense a technological innovation from Bombardier. Launching CRJ with 50 seats was greeted with skepticism by vast majority in the airline industry.

At that time providing flights to smaller hubs was not profitable by larger aircrafts while Bombardier introduced a non-existing product to the market thus filling the gap for demand which was in fact out there.    

This innovative aircraft increased the demand on the regional market and connected it with main air hubs thus improving passenger experience.  

CRJ-200 was in introduced in 1996. The company replaced the engines with more powerful GE CF34-3B1 to improve the aircraft performance and decrease maintenance requirements. Both CRJ-100 and CRJ-200 were success but soon they faced competition from Brazilian aircraft manufacturing company Embraer: competitor launched the ERJ-145. Also, there was a demand for aircraft with more seats on the market.    

The new CRJ-700 was purchased  by Brit Air in 2001.  The aircraft was slightly bigger and had more seats. The engines used in CRJ-700 were CF34-8C5. Now the maximum number pf seats in CRJ-700 is 78 and the cruising speed is Mach 0.825.

Further developments lead to CRJ-900 which was not only bigger (90 seats), but also showcased higher cruising speed and better aircraft economics.  

The latest development of Bombardier is CRJ1000 regional airliner which is designed specifically to meet the needs of growing regional airlines for jets of up to 100 seats, with a focus on extremely low operating costs and improvements to cabin comfort.  

Since its launch, the CRJ Series has stimulated the regional jet market. Currently the family operates more than 200,000 flights per month and in fact every five seconds a CRJ Series regional jet takes off or lands somewhere in the world.   

The CRJ Series provides flexibility to operators and allows them to optimize their fleet to specific market demands: currently Bombardier manufactures three models of CRJ: 700, 900 and 1000. Optimized for medium-haul regional routes, these aircraft provide up to a 10% cash operating cost advantage over competing jets.   

We will discuss more advantages of CRJ aircraft in the next article while here are some facts about CRJ you may not know.

• Every 10 seconds a CRJ Series aircraft performs takeoff or landing somewhere in the world.
• There are 3 versions of the CRJ700.
• The Bombardier CRJ 700 took four years from concept to complete.
• Bombardier Inc. has its own museum which is called Bombardier Museum.
• Bombardier Aerospace has facilities in five сountries.
• Bombardier Aerospace accounts for half of Bombardier Inc.’s revenue.