Michian Aircraft Trading (Dry Lease .com ACMI Leasing .com)

Aerospatiale and Aeritalia (now Alenia) established Avions de Transport Regional as a Groupement d'Intéret Economique under French law to develop a family of regional airliners. The ATR 42 was the consortium's first aircraft and was launched in October 1981. The first of two ATR 42 prototypes flew for the first time on August 16 1984. Italian and French authorities granted certification in September 1985 and the first ATR 42 entered airline service on December 9 1985. The initial ATR 42-300 was the standard production version of the ATR 42 family until 1996 and features greater payload range and a higher takeoff weight than the prototypes. The similar ATR 42-320 (also withdrawn in 1996) differed in having the more powerful PW121 engines for better hot and high performance, while the ATR 42 Cargo is a quick change freight/passenger version of the 42-300. The ATR 42500 is the first significantly improved version of the aircraft and features a revised interior, more powerful PW127Es for a substantially increased cruising speed (565km/h/305kt) driving six blade propellers, a 1850km (1000nm) maximum range, the EFIS cockpit, elevators and rudders of the stretched ATR 72 (described separately), plus new brakes and landing gear and strengthened wing and fuselage for higher weights. The first ATR 42500 delivery was in October 1995. ATR was part of Aero International (Regional), the regional airliner consortium established in January 1996 to incorporate ATR, Avro and Jetstream. AI(R) handled sales, marketing and support for both the ATRs, plus the Avro RJs and the Jetstream 41, until its disbandment in mid 1998 when ATR regained its independence.