Cat IIIa is not zero/zero.

UPS 727-QFs with the HGS could shoot hand-flown Cat IIIb down to 600 RVR, and you can bet they didn't have autothrottles! The HGS provided a flare and thrust idle cue for the PF, though I'm not sure how that'd work while coupled. With a coupled approach and ATs I'm sure the system would automatically retard the thrust at the appropriate time to land mains first.

The CRJ2 has weak landing gear???? Compared to what, a carrier-borne aircraft?

 

oh ok i was thinking catIII autoland my mistake. and side loading on most airplanes makes any gear weak with the exception of airplanes that have more than 2 main gear trucks

 

We had CatIIIa approach capabilities on the SAAB2000 with a HUD when I was in Europe. Hand-flown. Any real business jet going to Europe needs at the very least Cat II approach capability, which is not hard to get with the CRJ. Cat IIIa is also pretty nice to have and I can think of at least one time when Cat II would not have been adequate. Landing at CDG and called the RWY in sight very near the 50 foot DH.

Anyway, there might be some conversions to biz jet status, but probably not too many.

Also, yes, the system we had gave aural "Idle" and "Flare" cues.

One more thing... The SAAB2000 was vastly more stable and speed control was easier than on the CRJ. It is hard for me to imagine a Cat III approach in the CRJ hand flown. And another thing! They were serious about keeping planes and vehicles out of the ILS sensitive area there. The CatII/III line was much further back than the ILS sensitive line in the US. I once almost had to go around here in ORD because something cross the ILS and we lost the GS. Had we been lower I would have had to go missed. Anyway....

 

Umm, guys to put an end on this, the CRJ into the business jet idea is already taking affect. I have a friend who's company is already buying one and making it into an unreal transcon business bird that is really, really sweet. 20 something seats, aux tanks, new engines and I'm not sure about the autothrottles things, but I'll ask about it. What he said was the company likes it because of the size vs cost. As far as not being able to go up higher then FL410, they get around that by adding huge aux tanks. I'll be you'll start seeing alot, ALOT of birds like this soon, as it just makes sense.

 

Well, you might be right. After all, the cabin would be pretty spacious for 20 folks or so and the weight issues would be much less. Certainly for some types of ops, including domestic sports charters for smaller teams like basketball teams it might be a good option. East-to-West coast capabilities would help. As would a larger lav!

 

Yeah what he said was the lav would be the cross section of the cabin. The galley is behind the lav (I"m guessing accessed through some door, I don't know how it'd work out) but the front was 20 or so pretty plush seats. I"m going to try to find some pictures for something.

 

I agree with the earlier poster about corp. shuttles. Some companies are already doing this. The Limited (Columbus, OH) I think has two CRJ-200's that run all over the east cost (CMH-TEB-CMH for sure). Take out the overhead bins.... and it'd be a nice corp. a/c...somewhere in the middle of the Challenger and Global.

These things won't ever haul freight.... I would guess it's cheaper to send 5 Caravans on a route than it would be 1 CRJ-100/200. This is probably the same conversation they were having about the B-1900/Dash-8 when the CL-65 came onto the market.

 

Cherry air and companies of the like don't make they money off volume they make their money off "on demand". Mostly car parts. When I worked in Del Rio several companies including Cherry air would come in almost daily. Several times a few of us would go across the river into Acuna, grab some lunch on them, then bring parts back to put on the planes. It cost the factories millions to go down for a day so when they need a specific part they need speed not size. I've seen them fly all the way out there, pick up a small bag of about 15 o-rings, then jump back into the jet and smoke it up to Detroit. No telling what those o-rings ran a piece.

 

The windows are so low because they were designed for little kids and midgets -- duh.

 

[quote=BoilerUP;263870]
You could probably buy a used 200, C-check it, install the big aux fuel tank, hang new engines on the pylons, add HGS and autothrottles up front and totally refurbish the interior to a luxurious 8-12 pax cabin with full-sized lav and galley for well under $20 million.

quote]

And call it a poor mans Global Express!