Design and Development
The ATR 42–300 was announced in 1981, making its maiden flight on 16 August 1984; French and Italian certification followed in September 1985 and its first revenue flight was in December of the same year with Air Littoral of France. This initial version of the ATR42 was on production line until 1996. The next upgrade for product was ATR42-320 (also withdrawn in 1996) differed in having the more powerful PW-121 engines for better hot and high performance. ATR42-300QC is a quick change freight/passenger version of the standard −300 series.
The current production version is the −500 series. It is totally new generation aircraft with new engines, new propellers, improved hot and high performance, increased weight capacity and an improved passenger cabin. The 50-seat ATR 42–500 was first certificated in July 1995.
As of January 2009 at least 401 ATR 42s have been delivered worldwide with up to 18 aircraft on order.
Read more about this topic: ATR 42
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