Thoughts? I wonder if eventually they will be taken out of pax service and put into freight ops. They might not even be bad for some types of ops. They're not being made anymore and I would imagine the oldest ones are being removed from service slowly.

What's the future of this airplane?

i thought i have heard that was what this plane was originally designed to do? hence why the windows are so low, it wasn't supposed to have windows in the first place.

watch out UPS/Fedex, here's where the whipsawing begins for you guys!!

Miller High Life.

Single pilot freight ops in a CRJ.... I can see it now.

Well, it would probably be easier than flying a Metro, from what I've heard!

The windows are low because it is a business jet. They did not put 2+2 seating in the Challenger and were forced to raise the floor. That's what I have heard at least.

Ive always wondered the same thing. If Cherry air and a few others can make money flying freight in those old DA-20s I'm sure theres money to be made with a larger, more efficient RJ.

The Challenger was designed per the request of Fed Ex as a replacement for their DA-20s. A couple design parameters were a cabin wide enough for a pallet and the ability to stretch it into larger sizes for impending deregulation. I guess you could say they'd be coming full circle.

Cargo deregulation happened earlier than they thought it would and Fred started buying up 727s.

The ATRs have found a second wind as cargo haulers. Maybe we'll see CRJs doing the same, I highly doubt it happening any time in the near future.

That's probably because they bought those Falcons for next to nothing ! A used CRJ probably still fetches a pretty penny.

I don't believe UPS and FedEx can get them for their feeders as the scope clause limits all off line flying to be done by props. No jets allowed.

Incidentally I saw a photo of a converted cargo 146 being used over in Europe...

I'd bet that in the next 5-10 years you're going to start seeing MANY, MANY CRJ-100/200s used for corporate shuttles and converted to full-blown business jets.

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.

Of course it won't have the range of a dedicated large-cabin bizjet, and the DOC will likely be higher than average due to the airplane's practical climb limitation to the upper 30s...but it'll provide large cabin comfort and the range for NY Metro to Europe or the US west coast in even the worst winter headwinds, with plenty of AOG support and an ample supply of experienced crews & mechanics.

I think ETOPS restrictions and, as you said, the inability to climb into the 400s will limits its conversion to a medium-long haul biz jet. The wing is just not suited for it. The Gulfstreams and Global Express have better wings for those altitudes. The fact that it is a low-mid 300s jet is a problem. And the fact that it can't fly the speeds required in the NAT Track system on a regular basis.

Anyway, I think that for Euro continental or North American routes it would do pretty well, especially in the -200 series we have with higher gross weights and fuel capacity. East coast to West coast in winter winds non-stop would be out of range now, but if they put in more fuel capacity it would be possible.

We'll see.