CRJ900

Bombardier · Canada · first flew 2001 · airliner

The Bombardier CRJ900 is a stretched regional jet seating around 76-90 passengers, with rear-mounted engines and a T-tail derived from the Canadair Regional Jet line.

Recognition (WEFT)

W — Wings	Low-mounted, swept
E — Engines	2 × turbofan, fuselage-mounted
F — Fuselage	Two engines mounted on the rear fuselage, not the wing
T — Tail	T-tail

WEFT is AircraftIQ's four-point recognition method — how it works.

Spot it by:

Two engines mounted on the rear fuselage, not the wing
High T-tail above a slender stretched regional-jet body
Long thin fuselage with a low pointed nose

The clearest tells are the two engines bolted to the rear fuselage and the high T-tail, quite unlike the underwing-engined Embraer E-Jets. The long, narrow fuselage and low nose complete the CRJ look.

Specifications

The CRJ900 has a length of 36.2 m (119 ft).
It has a wingspan of 24.9 m (82 ft).
Its maximum speed is 870 km/h (541 mph).
Typical crew: 2 flight crew.

Figures are for the representative variant described above; marks differ. See how AircraftIQ sources figures.

History

Bombardier stretched the CRJ700 to create the CRJ900, which first flew on 21 February 2001. Like the rest of the CRJ family it traces its lineage to the Challenger business jet, scaled up into a successful series of regional airliners.

Variants

The CRJ family runs from the early CRJ100/200 through the CRJ700, CRJ900 and the longest CRJ1000. The CRJ900 sits near the top of the range, with the line later acquired by Mitsubishi before production ended.

Where you'll see it

In the UK regional and feeder context the CRJ family has flown with operators including Loganair and partner carriers on domestic and short European routes. CRJs are familiar at regional airports connecting to larger hubs.

In depth

The CRJ900's ancestry in a business jet is written into every dimension of its fuselage. The Canadair Challenger 600, from which the entire CRJ family descends, was designed in the late 1970s as a long-range corporate transport for eight to twelve passengers. When Canadair stretched and adapted it into the first Canadair Regional Jet in the early 1990s, they retained that cross-section. The internal width of approximately 2.57 metres forces a 2+1 seating layout — one seat on the left, two on the right — with an aisle too narrow for two people to pass easily. Overhead bins are modest, legroom at higher-density configurations is constrained, and the ceiling arcs noticeably toward the windows. From the outside, the consequence of this heritage is a fuselage that looks noticeably more slender than contemporary Embraer E-Jets carrying a similar number of passengers. The nose is narrow and almost pointed by airliner standards — a profile inherited from a machine whose aerodynamic brief was long-range cruise efficiency rather than cabin volume. On the apron, side by side with an E175, the CRJ900 reads immediately as the narrower aircraft even though the seat-count difference may be small.

The rear-engine, T-tail configuration was the correct choice for what the original design was trying to do. Mounting engines on the rear fuselage removes intake noise from immediately beside the cabin windows and directs exhaust aft — meaningful comfort gains in a small aircraft where structure-borne sound is harder to suppress than on a wide-body. The arrangement also allows the wing to be designed without the geometric constraints that underwing engine pylons impose, producing a shorter, structurally lighter wing. Perhaps most practically, the slim fuselage sits close to the ground; an underwing engine installation would have required either long pylons or reduced ground clearance that the inherited structure could not accommodate. The T-tail brings its own aerodynamic price: the horizontal stabiliser mounted atop the fin is outside the wing's downwash, which can cause deep-stall susceptibility in some configurations, requiring careful handling and flight-envelope protection. These are understood and managed characteristics, not deficiencies unique to the CRJ.

The acquisition of the CRJ programme by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in 2020 was a strategic move into commercial aviation support. By that point new CRJ production had effectively ceased — Bombardier had sold the C Series programme to Airbus and contracted its commercial aviation ambitions substantially. What Mitsubishi acquired was the type certificate, the support infrastructure, and the customer relationships associated with a large in-service fleet. No new-production CRJs are expected; the programme's future is in keeping the existing fleet airworthy.

Distinguishing the CRJ900 from related types is mostly straightforward. Against the shorter CRJ200, the CRJ900 is noticeably longer with substantially more cabin windows. Against the Fokker 100, which also carries rear engines and a T-tail, the Fokker has a visibly larger-diameter fuselage and a more blunt nose; the Fokker 100 is also an older design and increasingly rare. The BAe 146 and Avro RJ family are resolved immediately by their four engines and high wing. CRJs remain one of the most reliably encountered types at any airport with meaningful connecting traffic, and in the UK Loganair's continued operations keep them visible on domestic and short-haul European routes.

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