A series of medium-haul Canadair Regional Jet airliners

In the Soviet Union, airfares were relatively inexpensive, and most of the passenger traffic was carried by medium-haul liners. The flight from the city to the city for a distance of 500 to 1000 kilometers cost 30-40 rubles, which, of course, was higher than the railway tariffs, but it is affordable for an ordinary worker or engineer. In the early nineties, air carriers began to feel a systemic crisis that hit other areas of the country's economy. Reliable and time-tested machines designed for regional lines were unclaimed, they quickly grew old. Flights have become a luxury, accessible only to the nouveaux riches.

Designing new airliners with a capacity of 50-80 passengers with a flight range of a couple of thousand kilometers was frozen. Therefore, when there was a need for such aircraft, the airlines turned to foreign aircraft manufacturers, in particular, to the Canadian firm Bombardier.

Canadair Regional Jet (CRJ) is a line-up of passenger aircraft designed for the comfortable transportation of 50-100 passengers on lines of small and medium length. The climatic conditions of the producing country are close to ours. Low fuel consumption, high performance, ease of retraining of pilots and technical personnel created competitive advantages facilitating the rapid promotion of these aircraft in the Russian air transportation market.

The first model of the Canadair Regional Jet series, put on the wing in 1991, received the CRJ-100 index. Canadian designers deliberately abandoned the wide-body scheme popular in recent decades, making a choice in favor of profitability. To increase it, four years later the plane was modified by installing the engines of "General Electric" CF-34B1 in place of CF-34A1. It was upgraded and avionics, flights in difficult weather conditions became possible. The number of seats remained the same - 50, but such a large-scale structural changes were reflected in the new index - Canadair Regional Jet-200, although it was difficult to distinguish it from "hundred parts".

The interior of the cabin is aesthetically pleasing and has a high level of comfort, the armchairs are very comfortable and have leather upholstery. The engines of the Canadair Regional Jet series are located on the pylons at the sides of the tail section of the fuselage, and this arrangement, first applied to the "Caravelle", provides a low noise level.

In the early nineties, a pilot-type joystick handle was a technically feasible option for controls, but the Canadian manufacturer settled on the helm speakers that were familiar to pilots around the world, which increased the export potential of the new machine. Devices "alarm clocks" have been replaced by functional ergonomic multi-color displays.

Like any successful development, the Canadair Regional Jet series has a high modifying potential. Features of the design allowed to change the flight characteristics and passenger capacity. The model line was replenished with new airliners with a large number of seats and an increased practical range of routes. So, the Canadair Regional Jet-900, created in 2001, takes on board almost twice as many passengers as the basic model CRJ-100. Of course, in order for this to become possible, the length of the fuselage had to be increased, and with it the wingspan and engine power. Perhaps the needs of the air transportation market will cause the appearance of new modifications of the aircraft of the Canadian company of reactive regional airliners.