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Aviation History
1997
1997 - 0567.PDF
AIR TRANSPORT GRAHAM WARWICK/MONTREAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE Canadair Regional Jet Series 700 promises to be less difficult than launching the 70-seat air craft, jokes John Holding, group executive vice-president, engineering and product devel opment, at Bombardier Aerospace. Certainly, the Canadian company has been talking about stretching its 50-seat Canadair Regional Jet (CRJ) for almost as long as it has been building the aircraft. The launch finally came in January with, it emerges, a mere four firm orders from French regional Brit'Air. Including conditional orders, options and memoranda of understanding, commitments for die CRJ-700 now stand at 67, but backlog is not Bombardier's immediate con cern. The Canadian company has launched die 70-seater because it needs to offer its CRJ cus tomers a family of aircraft. It is the company's responsibility to ensure that customer airlines have a larger aircraft to cater for growth, says Bombardier Regional Aircraft division president Pierre Lortie. He describes the CRJ-700 as a "natural extension" of die company's regional-aircraft line, which also includes de Havilland Dash 8 turboprops seating from 30 to 70 passengers. Natural it may be, but the company had to work hard to convince Bombardier's board to launch the stretched CRJ, particularly after it approved development of die 70-seat Dash 8- 400 in June 1995 with a similarly slim order- book. Key to both decisions is Bombardier's belief diat distinct markets exist for the two air craft — an argument given some credence by die fact that Dash 8-400 launch customer Great China Airlines of Taiwan has also signed a mem- FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 5 - 11 March 1997 Bombardier says its regional-aircraft family is complete with launch of the Canadair Regional Jet Series 700. orandum of understanding to buy CRJ-700s. Bombardier forecasts almost equal market potential for both 70-seaters, estimating diat die 60- to 90-seat short-range (turboprop) and long-range (jet) markets will each account for almost 2 5 % of the 8,000 regional-aircraft deliv eries it is projecting for die period 1996-2015. That equates to a potential market for the $23 million CRJ-700 of some 2,000 aircraft, and compares with protected deliveries of some 1,100 aircraft in the 40- to 59-seat long-range market served by die $20 million CRJ-200. DESIGN FROZEN Design of die stretched CRJ-X began in 1994, and die configuration is effectively frozen, says Holding, aldiough windtunnel testing contin ues to fine-tune die landing configuration and to confirm loads for drawing release. During the current joint-definition phase, started in February, some 500 people from Bombardier and its risk-sharing partners will work togedier in Montreal to freeze the interfaces between dieir parts of die aircraft before returning home to begin detail design. Joint definition will be a key element in die success of the programme, Holding says. The process was pioneered on die Global Express business jet and refined on the Dash 8-400. While its partners are providing almost one- third of the CRJ-700's C$645 million ($478 mil lion) development cost, Bombardier retains overall design audiority, is responsible for tech nical management and systems integration, final assembly, certification, sales and support. Aldiough joint definition will continue until November, detail design will get under way in July as structural and systems interfaces are finalised. Canadair will build the cockpit section and wing, while Bombardier sister company Shorts will produce the fuselage barrel. Mitsubishi has been selected to provide the aft fuselage, and negotiations continue with poten tial risk-sharing suppliers of the tail section. Although the aircraft is derived from today's CRJ, itself a derivative of Canadair's Challenger business jet, diere is little structural commonal ity between the 50- and 70-seater, admits Holding. The fuselage has the same cross-sec tion, but the floor has been dropped by 50mm and the windows raised 140mm to reduce die "tunnel effect" when entering die cabin, and to improve the field of view when seated — a crit icism of the current CRJ. The CRJ-700 seats 70 four-abreast, with 790mm pitch (1.04m at die overwing-exit row), but can seat between 66 and 78 for different markets. While die fuselage has been stretched 4.72 m, die cabin has actually been extended furdier, he says, by moving the aft pressure-bulkhead back — made possible by relocating the auxiliary power-unit to die tailcone, where it is accessible dirough clamshell doors. Bombardier has taken advantage of the stretch by locating an under- floor baggage-bay, for gate-checked lug- ^ 29
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