Overview

The Bombardier Challenger 300 is the super-midsize business jet that launched the BD-100 line, certified in 2003 and built through 2014, when the Challenger 350 replaced it. It established the formula the segment still runs on: a wide, stand-up cabin and transcontinental range, up to 3,100 nm, in an airframe smaller and cheaper to operate than the heavy jets above it. Two Honeywell HTF7000 turbofans, a 45,000 ft ceiling, and a Mach 0.82 cruise give it the altitude and speed of the class, and the type sold in volume, leaving a deep used market today.

For the buyer, the 300 is the value entry to the super-midsize cabin. It shares that cabin cross-section with the later 350 and 3500, so the passenger experience is much the same, and the airframe’s original selling point, short-field and hot-and-high performance, is intact. What it does not have is the 350’s later refinements: the canted winglets and more efficient HTF7350 engines that lifted the 350’s range, and the 2018 steep-approach certification that clears the 350 into London City. A 300 cannot fly that approach. The primary cross-shop is its own successor: stepping up to a Bombardier Challenger 350 buys winglets, steep-approach access, and a newer fleet for a higher price, while the 300 holds the lowest entry cost into the cabin. Against the Embraer Praetor 600, the newer Embraer offers fly-by-wire and more range that an early-2000s design cannot match. As with the rest of the family, full-fuel payload is tight, the 3,100 nm range and a full cabin are not the same flight.

Key Features for GA Buyers

• The value entry to the super-midsize cabin. The 300 shares the wide BD-100 cabin cross-section with the 350 and 3500, but as the oldest and most numerous of the family it carries the lowest acquisition cost into that cabin.
• Short-field and hot-and-high performance. Short takeoff and landing distances and good high-elevation performance were the 300’s original selling point.
• A large, well-supported fleet. The 300 sold in volume across its 2003-2014 run, so parts, maintenance expertise, and resale activity are all plentiful.

Trade-offs

• No winglets, no steep approach. The 300 predates the 350’s canted winglets, HTF7350 engines, and 2018 steep-approach certification; it gives up some range and efficiency to the 350 and cannot operate steep-approach fields such as London City.
• An early-2000s design. Avionics and cabin systems are of the 300’s era; a buyer who wants current avionics is cross-shopping the 350, and one who also wants fly-by-wire the Embraer Praetor 600, not the 300.
• Tight full-fuel payload. Like the rest of the family, filling the tanks leaves limited cabin payload, so the 3,100 nm range and a full cabin are not available on the same flight.

See Also

• Bombardier Challenger 350 – the successor that refined this airframe; winglets, steep-approach access, and HTF7350 engines for a higher price. Compare
• Bombardier Challenger 3500 – the current-production version of the line; the same cabin, two generations updated. Compare
• Embraer Praetor 600 – the modern super-midsize cross-shop; fly-by-wire and more range from a newer design. Compare