About ATR 9X

ATR, a 50:50 joint venture between the Airbus Group and Alenia Aeronautica of Italy, looked likely to be the first maker to bring out a 90 seat turboprop. The turboprop market is small. A 90 seater would have to be attractive enough to compete with regional jets of 90 seats and more, and sometimes to complement them and mainline jets.

What ATR9X was

ATR9X was an open project run for study only, all about a 90 seat turboprop. Officially it had nothing to do with ATR, but it had everything to do with the maker's still unannounced 90 seater. No copyright or intellectual property infringement was intended. It was purely an academic activity and had to be read that way.

Why it was interesting

• Airbus's stake in ATR would shape the design, mostly at the front of the aircraft. The cockpit would probably be close to Airbus jets in philosophy, so an airline would find the two families similar.
• The Airbus Group already builds a large turboprop, the A400M. The new clean sheet design might borrow ideas or technology from it.
• ATR's success had overtaken its only notable rival, Bombardier, so its turboprop was worth studying, and independently designing one was interesting for everyone in the project.

ATR had openly said it wanted to start its 90 seat project. ATR9X was neither supported nor recognised by ATR. It was open to anyone who wanted to do something beyond the ordinary: to use their creativity inside realistic limits and come up with a 90 seat design.

Who was wanted

The project looked for ATR72 rated pilots, ATR72 rated maintenance engineers, digital artists, 3D modellers, CFD analysts, and people who knew how to build aircraft models for X-Plane. Anyone with a strong reason or skill to help was welcome to join the design group. A separate introduction page explained how the work would go. Other sections were the logbook and the fuselage.

Members

There were two active members. A1 was The Flying Engineer. A2 was a first officer, known as Bucks, an ATR72 rated pilot with five years on type, whose real name and hours were withheld. A member counted as active only after contributing often.

More projects.