2165. Stretching an Aircraft – A Case Study: Canadair Regional Jet
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Paper
Abstract
This paper has been prepared to document the weight and balance data derived during the design and development of an aircraft stretch program. The aircraft under discussion is the Canadair Regional Jet, designed and manufactured by Canadair, a group of Bombardier, Inc. The Regional Jet is a stretch of the Challenger Executive Jet, incorporating (among other things) a fuselage plug 20 feet long, thereby increasing the overall length to 80 feet, The Regional Jet is designed to carry 50 passengers 1,650 statute miles at speeds of up to 530 MPH. Current configurations include 56 seat layouts and 18 seat executive passenger layouts. The prime directives stipulated at the beginning of the program were: Minimum Change and Minimum Cost These directives together with a very tight schedule limited the effectiveness (or power) of the weights group to ensure an efficient worthwhile optimization program. It was agreed then, with these directives in mind, that, based on the weight predictions at configuration freeze, a 10% allowance should be added to all new and major change components and that the resultant aircraft weight should be set as the specification weight. This paper describes how successful the 10% allowance was, where the significant increase originated, and during which phase they were induced, together with an overview of the aircraft balance and loadability characteristics.
