Canadair Montreal Manufacturing Plant

    Canadair began its life as the aviation division of Canadian Vickers. By World War II, Vickers was heavily committed to producing naval ships for allied fleets and on October 3, 1944, Canadair was created to focus on building and designing airplanes in order to take over Vicker’s aviation activities.

    On April 30, 1946, The Electric Boat company of Groton, Connecticut, seeing an opportunity for increased profits, purchased a controlling share of Canadair; in 1952, Electric Boat, Electro-Dynamics and Canadair merged to form General Dynamics.

    During the Second World War, Canadair built the PBY-5A Canso, an amphibious version of the Consolidated PBY-5 Catalina, which was a long range maritime patrol search and rescue aircraft.

    The Sabre program saw changes in production tools and techniques at Canadair; with heavy investment in tools suited to refit projects, the Sabre project meant that Canadair would have to upgrade; by the end of this early jet project, Canadair had a moving assembly line and new metal working equipment.

    When the RCAF planned to adopt jet aircraft, it needed a jet trainer. Canadair’s CL-30 was developed from the twin tandem seat, single engine Lockheed T-33, which itself had been adapted from the P-80 Shooting Star.

    After the war, Canadair focused on providing much needed passenger air liners. The company converted over 200 military C-47s to civilian DC-3s and produced the North Star long-range transport.

    In 1954, beginning with a request by the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF)for a long range maritime patrol aircraft that could also be used as a transport, Canadair took on the task of turning Bristol Britannias into what would be known as the CL-28 Argus or the CC-106 Yukon (the CL-44-6 Yukon was the RCAF's transport version).

    Canadair adapted the CL-44 Yukon for the civilian cargo-carrier market by adding a hinged tail; the whole back end could be swing to the side for fast, "straight-in" cargo loading.

The Jet Age

    The F-104 Starfighter, built under license from Lockheed, represented Canada's contribution to NATO's strategic nuclear defenses; it was this aircraft that carried Canada's nuclear aresenal into the skies over Western Europe through the 1960's. It was later reverted to a conventional, non-nuclear role in the early 1970's and was finally phased out of the R.C.A.F service in 1985.

    The F-5 Freedom Fighter was a Northrop design and a decision based on cost-cutting in Ottawa; coincidentally, it turned out to be very expensive. Northrop, having had little experience dealing with licensees, provided little support and the Canadair CF-5 development project took on many of the complexities of a ground-up design.

    Until the 1960's, Canadair had busied itself with conversion projects. While its engineers were quite creative in solving problems and adapting designs to suit client’s special needs - the Swingtail CL-44 is a good example - they had yet to design and aircraft from the ground up.

    In 1948, the Sabre was chosen by the RCAF as its front line fighter and as part of its obligation to NATO defenses.

    With the RCAF planning to acquire new jet fighters, it needed a new jet trainer. The CL-41 Tutor became Canadair’s first from the ground up design.

    The CL-41 Tutor beat out entries from three other countries to become the RCAF's primary jet trainer. The Tutor, designed in 1960, is still in use today as a trainer, and by Canada's elite aerobatic team, the Snowbirds.

The Right Aircraft...

    Sadly, a number of Canadair's projects, some of their most advanced in fact, were unsuccessful because they did not fit the needs of the market at the time.

    The CL-84 Dynavert was an experimental aircraft, funded in part by the National Research Council and the Defense Research Board and was intended to be developed into a support aircraft for ground troops.

    It had revolutionary V/STOL capabilities and a tilt wing that allowed it to be flown like a conventional fixed wing aircraft and in vertical and hover modes like a helicopter. With the end of the Vietnam War, the immediate need for the aircraft dried up and production was halted.

The CL-215

    Like the CL-41 Tutor and the CL-84 Dynavert, the CL-215, a multi-role amphibian, was Canadair’s third design from the ground up. With unique capabilities to appeal to a variety of civilian markets, the CL-215 Waterbomber has managed to survive the rise and fall in the markets and has remained a valuable and relevant aircraft still in use around the world.

    Canadair was given the go ahead by its General Dynamics parent, in February 1966, to produce what would become the longest running production program in Canadair's history.

    Several versions have been produced, including a CL-215T with turboprop engines. The final version went under the marketing title CL-415 and represents the ultimate evolution of the waterbomber.

Modern Aircraft

    The 1970s were lean times for the aerospace industry and Canadair needed help.

    On January 5, 1976, in a move to preserve Canada's independent aviation industry, the Canadian Government bought Canadair from General Dynamics for $38.15 million.

(The Canadian government buy-back of de Havilland Canada from foreign interests is covered in the de Havilland section of this web site.)

    Between 1974 and 1976, interest in a small business jet aircraft using cutting edge technologies, high-bypass fanjet engines and supercritical wing, was forecast by two companies: Canadair and U.S. firm, Learjet.

    On April 2, 1976, a licensing agreement was signed between Lear and Canadair giving Canadair worldwide exclusive rights to Lear’s Learstar 600 concept for five months. Go-ahead for production was given on October 29.

    The resulting Challenger 600 series saw many changes for Canadair, among them, government ownership being transferred to the Canadian Development Insurance Corporation (CDIC), a hard-fought return to profitability and eventual sale to the Bombardier group of companies based in Montreal.

    The Challenger program had its share of problems. Among them, difficulties with early engines that necessitated switching from Lycomings to General Electric’s fanjets, media criticism - largely overcome by the glowing reviews of clients - and cost overruns that, fortunately, didn't end up in the cancellation of what has become what some would dub Canada's most successful aviation endeavor.

Bombardier

    Bombardier Inc., founded in 1907 and with a history of producing snowmobiles, had branched out into mass-transit systems and high-speed trains.

    When CDIC, under orders from Ottawa, sold Canadair to Bombardier, it represented Bombardier's entry into the aircraft industry and gave Canadair a much needed boost; there had been uncertainty about ownership which caused Canadair's credibility to suffer.

    Today, as a member of the Bombardier family of companies, Canadair produces a line of modern aircraft that have been adopted by commercial and military markets worldwide.