page_title: Canadair
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Canadair / History
caption_attribution_description: Canadair Sabre (Golden Hawks aerobatic team) display at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, Mount Hope, Ontario
context_page_description: Canadair Ltd. was a civil and military aircraft manufacturer in Canada. The name "Canadair" is a portmanteau of Canada and air. Its former assets are primarily held by Bombardier Aerospace, the aviation division of Canadian transport conglomerate Bombardier Inc.
  Canadair's origins lie in the foundation of a manufacturing centre for Canadian Vickers in the Saint-Laurent borough of Montreal, at Cartierville Airport. It was created as a separate entity by the government of Canada on 11 November 1944. Throughout much of its existence, it was a subsidiary of various other aircraft manufacturers prior to being nationalized by the Canadian government during 1976. For a decade, the company operated as a federally-owned Crown Corporation. During 1986, Canadair was privatized via its sale to Bombardier, after which it became a core element of the firm's aerospace division. The company's former principal manufacturing facility, Canadair Plant One, remains intact to the present day, although Cartierville Airport itself has been closed and since undergone redevelopment.
  During its operational years, Canadair achieved several aviation firsts.
context_section_description: Canadair was formally created on 11 November 1944 as a separate entity by the government of Canada. Having absorbing 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.
  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 reorganised 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. Despite a lack of official backing from the Canadian Government, the Royal Canadian Air Force's (RCAF) Directorate of Training’s Jet Trainer Liaison Committee had closely engaged with the company; their involvement in the project had reportedly made a significant impact in the aircraft's final design. 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 2,100 hp (1,566 kW) 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 hamp
caption: Canadair Sabre in the colours of the Golden Hawks, on display at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, Mount Hope, Ontario
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