not be capable of producing an aircraft fulfilling the performance guarantees made, Canadair officials had commented that they expected the first flight to occur in the following year and that initial deliveries had been scheduled to commence during September 1979. Flight International noted that even prior to the prototype's first flight, the type had already made a noticeable impact upon the competition, including the launch of the Cessna Citation III and Grumman Gulfstream III. By early March 1978, the first prototype was almost finished and the assembly of the two other had debuted; destined to control handling qualities and test flight performance, it was formally rolled out on 25 May 1978, while 116 orders had been confirmed 19 months after go-ahead. By this point, production jigs allowing for a production rate of up to seven Challengers per month had been established, ready for quantity production to proceed. Airframe structural testing began in February 1979. and operational test cycling started in December 1979, simulating 72,638 flight hours by February 1985, while its predicted lifetime was 30,000 hours. Flight test phase On 8 November 1978, the prototype aircraft took off for its maiden flight from Montreal, Quebec. The flight test and certification program were conducted at Mojave Kern County Airport instead of Canada due to better weather. The second and third prototypes first flew during 1979. A test flight on 3 April 1980 in the Mojave Desert resulted in disaster; the aircraft crashed due to the failure of the release mechanism to detach the recovery chute after a deep stall, killing one of the test pilots; the other test pilot and the flight test engineer parachuted to safety. The CL-600-1A11 type certification was approved by Transport Canada on 10 August 1980, and by the US Federal Aviation Administration on 7 November. The program cost was C$1.5 billion (US$ billion at the time). Further development During 1980, the first production model of the Challenger series, the CL-600, entered service with end customers. Early marketing of the type by Canadair typically contrasted the more spacious cabin offered by the Challenger against its competitors, which typically had more narrow fuselages, and therefore cramped conditions, as well as the type's fuel economy. By 1982, while only 10 aircraft had entered service, the company had begun publicising a new model of the aircraft, the CL-601, which was to be powered by a pair of General Electric CF34