Canadair was formally created on 11 November 1944 as a separate entity by the government of Canada. Having absorbed the operations of the
Canadian Vickers company, it initially operated as a manufacturer of
Consolidated PBY "Canso" flying boats on behalf of the
Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). Benjamin W. Franklin became its first president. In addition to the PBY contract, a development contract to produce a new variant of the
Douglas DC-4 transport was also underway. The resulting aircraft, the Canadair
DC-4M, which was powered by an arrangement of four
British-sourced
Rolls-Royce Merlin engines, began production during 1946; it was marketed under the "Northstar" name. , on display at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, Mount Hope, Ontario During the immediate
postwar era, Canadair purchased the "work in progress" on the existing
Douglas DC-3/
C-47 series. In 1946, the
Electric Boat Company, an American industrial group, bought a controlling interest in the company; shortly thereafter, the two companies merged to form the American company
General Dynamics in 1952. During 1954, General Dynamics opted to purchase
Convair, which had been created by the merger of Consolidated Aircraft and Vultee Aircraft; as a result of this purchase, Canadair was reorganized as Convair's Canadian subsidiary. During the 1950s, Canadair decided that it would develop its own indigenous trainer aircraft as a private venture. This aircraft, which would become the
CT-114 Tutor was the product of the company’s in-house Preliminary Design department. By August 1957, the basic configuration had been completed, which was of a
turbojet-powered, low-wing aircraft, complete with a
tricycle undercarriage and a side-by-side cockpit arrangement. During September 1961, the Canadian government, having been impressed by the performance of the prototype, placed a sizeable order for 190 production aircraft on behalf of the
Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). Serving as the service's primary trainer platform, the Tutor would be operated as such for over thirty years. Another indigenously-developed design was the
CL-215 amphibian. It arose from an internal research study during the early 1960s at Canadair, originally conceived of as a twin-engined
floatplane transport based on the design of the
369 Canso (a variant of the PBY). However, it was altered into a "firefighter" following a request by forestry officials in the
Quebec Service Aérien (
Quebec Government Air Service) who wanted a more effective way of delivering water to forest fires. The 1962 preliminary design, designated as the
CL-204, was a purpose-designed
water bomber that evolved into an amphibian flying boat configuration, powered by two shoulder-mounted
Pratt & Whitney R-2800 piston engines. Its design was shaped by a desire for the CL-205 to be well-suited for performing a range of roles, including air-sea
search and rescue, cargo haulage and commercial passenger-carrying, in addition to the water bomber mission. The definitive design was publicly revealed at the 1965
Paris Air Show. While the
CL-215A served as the standard water bomber configuration, another model, designated as the
CL-215C, had been envisioned to dispense with compromises meant to enhance its performance at the water bomber role, allowing it be furnished with larger doors on the sides of the fuselage and a revised underfloor hull structure. Perhaps the company's most commercially successful product was the
Challenger 600 business jet. Originally conceived of by the American aviation inventor
Bill Lear as the
LearStar 600, at the end of 1975, Canadair gave its backing to the concept; during April 1976, the company opted to acquire the whole project, formally launching it with the backing of the
Canadian federal government shortly thereafter. Development of the Challenger 600 was hampered by a deadly crash amid the
flight test programme on 3 April 1980; despite this,
type certification for the aircraft was approved by both
Transport Canada and the
Federal Aviation Administration later that same year. The high cost of developing the Challenger 600 has been attributed as a major cause of Canadair's poor financial situation during the 1980s, being reportedly close to
bankruptcy; the company's condition in turn ultimately contributed to its acquisition by
Bombardier Inc. during 1986. In the long run, the business jet was well received by the market and can be considered to be a success, being produced for over four decades. In excess of 1,000 Challenger 600s had been reportedly completed by late 2018. es under license. All 50 were for the
Montreal Transit Commission. Outside of the field of aviation, Canadair opted to diversify into various other sectors, developing its own range of industrial and commercial products. The "Canarch" division was involved in
curtain wall design and manufacture for a number of buildings. They also produce the cabins for many
air traffic control towers operated by the
Federal Aviation Administration in the United States. Both tracked and
air-cushioned vehicles were designed and underwent testing; however none proceeded into commercial production. In the late 1950s, the
United States Army contracted Canadair to develop a small light-weight all-terrain amphibious tracked vehicle. In turn, Canadair developed the CL-70 RAT
Remote Articulated Track; this vehicle, while not a commercial success, gave Canadair useful experience towards the development of the upgraded CL-91 Dynatrac, which was a marketing success and purchased by the US Army as
XM-571. During 1976, the Canadian government
nationalized Canadair Ltd., by completing the purchase of the
corporate assets from General Dynamics. It remained a federal
crown corporation until 1986 when, having experienced record losses during its development of the
Challenger business jet, the
Mulroney government sold it to
Bombardier Inc. Shortly after Canadair's acquisition, Bombardier was able to restore it to profitability; the company soon acquired other aviation companies, such as the near-bankrupt
Short Brothers of
Belfast, Northern Ireland, and the
business jet specialist
Learjet of
Wichita, Kansas, as well as
de Havilland Aircraft of Canada of
Toronto,
Ontario. Together with these other entities, Canadair became a core component of
Bombardier Aerospace. Following the company's acquisition by Bombardier, the Canadair name had continued to be prominently used in the branding of its larger series of
business jets and
regional jets, which have been marketed as the
Canadian Regional Jet (CRJ). However, this branding has since been dropped; new projects from all of Bombardier's various aircraft divisions have since simply been known as Bombardier Aerospace. ==Products==