Canadair Ltd. was a civil and military aircraft manufacturer in Canada.
Absorbing the Canadian Vickers Ltd. operations, Canadair was created on 11 November 1944 as a separate entity by the government of Canada to manufacture patrol PBY Canso flying boats for the Royal Canadian Air Force. In 1946, the Electric Boat Company from the USA bought a controlling interest in Canadair. The two companies merged to form the American company General Dynamics (GD) in 1952. In 1954, GD purchased Convair and reorganised Canadair as its Canadian subsidiary. In 1976, the Canadian government acquired Canadair Ltd. from GD. It remained a federal crown corporation until 1986 when, having experienced record losses during its development of the Challenger business jet, it was sold to Bombardier Inc.
Challenger 601
The Challenger 600 series is a family of business jets, that was first produced by Canadair as an independent company and then produced from 1986 by Canadair as a division of Bombardier Aerospace. Variants are CL-600 (built from 1978 to 1982), CL-601, CL-604, CL-605 and CL-650.
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.
Canadair CL-600-2A12 Challenger 601, registration T7-GFA, built 1984, serial number 3025 Cointrin (GVA), Geneva, Switserland, 22 July 2016
