The Challenger 600 series business jet was launched by Canadair in October 1976 and received type certification in August 1980, followed shortly after with the first customer deliveries. The original Challenger 600 was powered by the Lycoming ALF 502L engine and was not equipped with winglets. An updated version – the Challenger 601 was introduced in 1982, featuring the General Electric CF34-1A engine, winglets and other improvements. Bombardier acquired Canadair in 1986 and the Challenger series was marketed as the Bombardier Challenger, with the 601 gaining further enhancements such as a glass cockpit and additional tail fuel tank.
At the time, the Challenger featured the widest cabin and largest cabin volume in the super midsize
class, and was designed to accommodate stretched versions, which was fully utilized when Bombardier launched the Canadair Regional Jet (CRJ) program in early 1989. The CRJ was derived as a stretched
version of the Challenger business jet, and the Challenger’s fuselage cross section was also shared with the Global Express family of long range business jets.
Data Source: Bombardier, AMSTAT, Conklin & de Decker, ASG
Data Source: Conklin & De Decker
The Challenger 604 was introduced in 1996 and remains the most popular model in the Challenger series with more than 350 aircraft delivered. With higher weights and increased maximum range to over 4,000 nautical miles, the Challenger 604 can perform US transcontinental and shorter transatlantic flights from the US East Coast.
The Challenger 605, which entered service in 2007, has similar performance to the 604 and features improvements such as updated avionics with the Collins Pro-Line 21, larger cabin windows and a new tail cone. More than 280 Challenger 605s were delivered.
The Challenger 650 was introduced in 2015 and features a redesigned cabin interior, as well as
avionics upgrades similar to the Challenger 350 and increased take-off thrust. More than 160 Challenger 650s have been delivered to date.
There were some 800 Challenger 604/605/650 jets in service around the world at the end of 2024, and these jets are highly popular with charter and fractional operators in North America such as Flexjet and NetJets. In addition to charter, corporate and private use, the Challenger 604/605/650 are also used for missions such as air ambulance, surveillance as well as search & rescue and coast guard. North America accounted for the largest based fleet of Challenger 604/605/650 with over 500 based aircraft, followed by Europe with just over 130.
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