Canada  aircraft

The Bombardier Challenger 600 series is a family of business jets. It was first produced by Canadair as an independent company .

Canadair CC-144 Challenger

Design and development

The Bombardier Challenger 600 series is a family of business jets. It was first produced by Canadair as an independent company and then produced from 1986 by Canadair as a division of Bombardier Aerospace. As of December 2017, close to 1,100 Challenger 600 Series have been delivered. Including the Challenger 300 and Challenger 850, the 1,600 Bombardier Challengers in-service had logged 7.3 million hours over 4.3 million flights in early 2017. The origin of the Challenger 600 lies in Canadair’s purchase of a concept for a business jet aircraft, the LearStar 600 from the American inventor and aircraft developer Bill Lear. However, Lear had practically no influence on the ensuing development and design of the aircraft. Even the name LearStar was not new to this concept, since Lear had long before used the name for his conversion of Lockheed Lodestars into business transports. Thus, Canadair  quickly abandoned the name LearStar and adopted the name Challenger.

Challengers can be identified visually by their distinctive double slotted hinged flap design, where the fairings can be seen below the wings, a sight much more common on commercial airliners.