Canadair
CL-41 Tutor
Photo: Robert Deering 1991
Alliance Airport (AFW)
Fort Worth, Texas
Canadair Ltd. was a civil and military aircraft manufacturer in Canada. It was a subsidiary of other aircraft manufacturers, then a nationalized corporation until privatized in 1986, and became the core of Bombardier Aerospace.
PHOTOS        
Commercial Aircraft Military Aircraft    

CL-215
 Scooper
CL-13
Sabre Mark IV
CL-41
 Tutor		    
HISTORY

Canadair's origins lie in the foundation of a manufacturing center for Canadian Vickers in the Montreal suburb of Saint-Laurent, at Cartierville Airport. Canadair Plant One is still there, although the airport no longer exists.

Absorbing the Canadian Vickers Ltd. operations, Canadair was created on 11 November 1944 as a separate entity by the government of Canada as a manufacturer of patrol PBY Canso flying boats for the Royal Canadian Air Force. Benjamin W. Franklin became its first president. Besides the ongoing PBY contract, a development contract to produce a new variant of the Douglas DC-4 transport, was still in effect. The new Canadair DC-4M powered by Rolls-Royce Merlin engines emerged in 1946 as the "Northstar."

In the immediate postwar era, Canadair bought the "work in progress" on the existing Douglas DC-3/C-47 series. In 1946, the Electric Boat Company bought a controlling interest in Canadair. The two companies merged to form General Dynamics (GD) in 1952. In 1954, GD purchased Convair and reorganized Canadair as its Canadian subsidiary.

In 1976, the Canadian government acquired Canadair Ltd. from US based 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. It became the core of Bombardier Aerospace.

As part of Bombardier, Canadair lives on in the series of business jets or regional jets known as "RJ Series" or CRJs. More recently the branding has been dropped, and new projects from all of Bombardier's various aircraft divisions are now known simply as Bombardier Aerospace.

Canadair has a record of several aviation firsts. The CL-44D, based on the Bristol Britannia, was the first design that allowed access by swinging the entire rear fuselage. The CL-89 and CL-289 were the first surveillance drones to be put into service in several countries' armed forces. The CL-84 was the first VTOL aircraft that rotated the wings to achieve vertical lift-off (tiltwing). The CL-215 was the first purposed-designed water bomber.

Source: Wikipedia
AIRCRAFT        
CL-1 Canadair CL-1     License-built variant of the Consolidated PBV-1A Canso A / OA-10A-VI
C-4 & C-5 North Star 1946   License-built variant of the Douglas DC-4
CL-13 Sabre 1950   License-built North American F-86 Sabre
CL-28 Argus 1957   Variant of the Bristol Britannia
CL-30 Shooting Star 1952   License-built Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star
CL-41 Tutor 1960   Trainer aircraft
CL-43       Never built, but later influenced the design for the CL-204 (later as CL-215)
CL-44 Yukon 1959   Military transport aircraft/Cargo aircraft
CL-45   1954   Joint effort with Hiller Aircraft. ASW concept helicopter, never built.
CL-52   1956   A USAF Boeing B-47B was loaned to the RCAF and turned over to Canadair to test the Orenda Iroquois PS-13 engine for the Avro Arrow project. After the Arrow was cancelled the aircraft was returned to the U.S.
CL-60   1952   Beech T-36 fuselage and final assembly; program cancelled in 1953
CL-61   1959   RAT (Remote Articulated Track)Prototypes for the CL-70
CL-66 Cosmopolitan 1959   Modified Convair CV-540
CL-70   1959   RAT (Remote Articulated Track)Prototypes for the CL-91 Dynatrac
CL-84 Dynavert 1960   Vertical/Short Takeoff/landing Experimental aircraftNo production aircraft
CL-89   1964   Surveillance Drone
CL-90 Starfighter 1961   License-built Lockheed F-104 Starfighter
CL-91 Dynatrac     Strike fighter / Trainer (aircraft)
CL-204   1962   Water bomberConcept led to production of the CL-215
CL-212   1964   Air cushion vehicleDevelopment transferred to General Dynamics Electric Boat
CL-215 Scooper 1967   Water Bomber
CL-219 Freedom Fighter 1968   License-built Northrop F-5 Freedom Fighter
CL-227 Sentinel 1980   Remote control drone
CL-252   1972   Modification of two Lockheed L-188 Electra airliners for Environment Canada ice patrols
CL-289   1964   Surveillance Drone
CL-415 Superscooper 1993   Water Bomber
CC-144 Challenger 1980   Business jet