The CRJ-200 can easily trace its roots to the Challenger 600 business jet.
Did you know that the Challenger can trace its roots to Bill Lear ( of Learjet ) design? It was a first wide cabin business jet. However, Lear never built it and sold the design to Canadair.
Bombardier Challenger 600 series - Wikipedia
Canadair developed it and the first version of this plane was powered by a pair of Lycoming ALF 502 engines. Those early super jets were normal height cabins with clear floors. The early versions with the Lycoming engines had reliability and maintenance issues and soon were replaced in production with the General Electric CF-34 engines. The CF-34 is the commercial derivative of the TF-34 engine that powers the A-10 Thunderbolt 2 and the S-3 Viking ( which I had the privilege to support while at GE ).
Canadair then picked up on the aviation boom that started in the late 1980's and early 1990's and decided to enlarge the Challenger and modify for short haul usage that carried 50 passengers ( there were various seat arrangements ) . Those jets competed directly with most turboprops that carried between 19 and 30 passengers as well as the few that carried 50 passengers.
The appeal to the flying public was a delusional stigma that propellers are so last century, clunky, noisy and slow. So in comes this plane that looks like you are flying a business jet and gets you there fast. fast and sexy looking.
The plane sold like hot cakes. However, Canadair never capitalized on the price of the plane and sold it mostly at low cost that constricted profits. So even though they flooded the market, they never commanded a good price for it. Lesson learned is do not give away your products unless you will get something equivalent in return. And since airplanes do not need to have parts replaced as in engine components, tires or brakes, there is really no spare parts profits here.
Bombardier CRJ100/200 - Wikipedia
Canadair went bankrupt ( what else is new ) due to a variety of reasons not all entirely their fault, and the company was taken over by Bombardier. Bombardier had no aviation experience, but was deemed by the Canadian government as the most suitable to carry on aviation business ( not the best run companies that actually was inches from bankruptcy themselves).
The CRJ-200 was in service far and wide. It flew mostly routes less than 500 miles. However, airline strategy of Hub and Spoke used the planes on sometime ridiculous routes as short as 15 minutes flight time ( as in Delta-ComAir flights from Cincinnati and Dayton Ohio. I took those flight numerous times and called them the "Space Shuttle flights" because as soon as the plane took off and got to 15,000 ft in a few minutes, the engines went to flight idle and the plane practically glided in for a landing the last 5 minutes.
More soon.
Isaac