Bombardier delivered its 1,000th super mid-size jet in February. Since this marked the continuing success of the Challenger brand, EVA took the opportunity to review the history of a name that first took flight in 1978
On 27 February 2025, Bombardier announced delivery of its 1,000th super-midsize aircraft. A Challenger 3500, it was handed over to customer JM Family Entreprises in what Éric Martel, President and CEO of Bombardier, called “a defining moment” for the company. Without the original CL-600 Challenger, however, neither the Challenger 300 line nor the Globals are likely to have appeared.
The story is even more fascinating for its historical links with William Lear and with Martel himself, who led the Challenger programme for three years from 2005. More than three decades earlier, in 1974, William Lear started work on the LearStar 600. Having achieved success with his pioneering Learjet design, Lear planned an optimised high-speed wing and twin Avco Lycoming ALF502D turbofan powerplant for the LearStar 600, but after he sold the Learjet line to Gates, the idea faded.
In April 1976, the Canadian government bought back Canadair, a historied Canadian aircraft manufacturer, from US company General Dynamics. Although heavily engaged in military work, Canadair’s management wanted a new programme and the LearStar 600 seemed a good basis for such a venture. The design team saw a quite different path for the evolving concept, preferring a wider, stand-up cabin cross section with 6ft of headroom, compared to Lear’s preferred narrow cabin. The larger aircraft required more fuel which made it heavier and therefore drove the selection of more powerful engines, while the classic T-tail configuration we know today was also adopted.
Ask a modern charter broker, Challenger passenger or operator to list the aircraft’s best features and cabin space invariably appears near the top, proving Canadair’s foresight. Less obvious is the fact that thanks to its wide cabin, the CL-600 became the basis of Canadair’s CRJ series of regional airliners which in turn spawned the Global Express and the portfolio of remarkable long-range and ultra long-range Global jets that followed in its wake. It is ironic to consider, as the world awaits service entry of the Global 8000, that the entire Global line owes its existence to the CL-600 Challenger.
Following a first flight on 8 November 1978, three pre-production Challengers and the first production machine progressed through the flight test campaign. Tragically, a faulty spin parachute, a standard piece of equipment used during spinning trials, caused the loss of the first pre-production aircraft in April 1980, but the aircraft design was sound and Canadian type certification was granted on 11 August that year.
The upgraded, higher-performing CL-601 replaced the CL-600 in 1982. Powered by General Electric CF34 turbofans in revised nacelles, and equipped with winglets, it also carried more fuel. Challenger evolution continued through CL-601 sub-variants, paving the way for the Challenger 604 from 1995.
The relationship between Challenger and CRJ now bore fruit in the opposite direction, as technology introduced first to the airliner found its way into the Challenger 604. Most significantly, this included the then new Rockwell Collins Pro Line 4 ‘glass’ flight deck. Improved CF34s, reinforced landing gear, structural revisions and greater fuel capacity were also incorporated.
The Challenger 605 arrived in 2006, introducing a new tail cone shape and larger cabin windows, plus Pro Line 21 avionics. By the time the Challenger 650 appeared to replace the 605 in production from 2015, features from the Challenger 350 were filtering down, including a Pro Line 21 Advanced flight deck, cabin improvements and a synthetic vision system. Significantly, the Challenger 650 now includes Bombardier’s pioneering Environmental Product Declaration (EPD), a document that is externally verified and granted through EPD International. Bombardier delivered the 500th Challenger (a 604) in 2000, and the 1,000th (a 650) in 2017.
A new Challenger line
In 2004, Bombardier delivered the first of an entirely new Challenger series, the Challenger 300. Launched in 1999 as the Continental, the super mid-size Challenger 300 featured Honeywell HTF7000 turbofans and Pro Line 21 avionics.
Introduced in 2014, the Challenger 350 delivered increased take-off thrust from HTF7350 engines, plus wing modifications. Helping propel Bombardier towards its 1,000 super mid-size deliveries, the Challenger 350 matched the Challenger 600 line for customer satisfaction. Fleet operators have found it especially effective, and it remained a bestseller before the Challenger 3500 was launched in 2021.
The primary focus for improvement in the Challenger 3500 was the cabin experience. Voice control, wireless chargers, 4K displays and 24in monitors were introduced, along with the remarkably comfortable Nuage seat, cascaded down from its premier position within the Global range. Reduced cabin altitude compared to the Challenger 350 further improved the passenger experience, while pilots benefitted from the introduction of autothrottles.
The Challenger 3500 followed in the Global 7500’s footsteps to become only the second business jet model to receive an EPD, a feat subsequently matched by the Challenger 650. Although they stem from separate evolutionary lines, the EPD is not the only thing the Challenger 3500 and Challenger 650 have in common: they also share some cabin design elements as well as the Pro Line 21 Advanced avionics suite.
With the announcement of its 1,000th super mid-size delivery Bombardier did, indeed, reach a significant milestone. But let us not forget that the Challenger line means more than just the Challenger 3500. It also means a legacy of more than 1,000 Challengers from the 600 series, plus the genesis of an entire series of globally significant regional airliners and the Global business jet family.