proposed Learstar against rivals such as the Lockheed Jetstar, Dassault Falcon 50, and Grumman Gulfstream II, Canadair decided to give its backing to the idea near the end of 1975. According to aerospace industry publication Flight International, the programme was viewed by many Canadians as a step towards developing a privately driven high-technology aviation industry that would compete at a global level. Perhaps more importantly, the Canadian government had issued a demand that Canadair become self-sufficient, thus the company wanted to depend less upon subcontracting arrangements with other firms, such as France's Dassault Aviation and America's Boeing, or providing support packages for existing aircraft for which they had already ended production, such as the CF-5 fighter. Canadair felt a need to prove its ability to independently develop original high-tech projects at this time. Canadair planned to use Lear's name and skills at self-promotion to secure extensive financial guarantees for a business-jet project from the Canadian federal government. This proved an effective choice: Future Prime Minister Jean Chrétien specifically refers to the effect of personal contact with Lear on his decision to direct financial support to Canadair's program. At the time of these events, Chrétien was successively president of the Treasury Board, minister of Industry, Trade, and Commerce, and minister of Finance, in the Canadian government. Due to the use of letters of comfort, the extent of the ministry's financial commitments for Canadair could be kept from parliament and the public for several years. These financial guarantees were later used as an academic example of insufficient monitoring and lax controls in government support of industry. In April 1976, Canadair acquired the LearStar 600 concept. By then it was a long by wide aircraft capable of a maximum speed of Mach 0.85 and a range of ; as an executive jet, it had sufficient capacity for 14 passengers; in a freighter configuration, it had a 3,400 kg (7,500 lb) payload capacity, loaded and unloaded through a forward door, or as commuter airliner, it could seat up to 30 passengers in a 2–1 seating configuration. Canadair developed the design into a large airframe furnished with a new supercritical wing design, new avionics and engines, as well as for compliance with new FAR part 25 standards. The configuration was frozen in August and a 1/25 model was tested in the National Aeronautical Establishment transonic wind tunnel. Reportedly, in excess of 1,800 hours of wind