During the mid-1990s, German aircraft manufacturer Dornier Luftfahrt GmbH experienced considerable financial difficulties; these heavily contributed to the company's acquisition by the American aerospace firm Fairchild Aircraft, after which the organisation became Fairchild Dornier. Shortly thereafter, the company began reorganising itself and examined possibilities for altering its product lineup. The first new aircraft to make it to market, the Fairchild Dornier 328JET, was a relatively straightforward reengining of the turboprop-powered Dornier 328; however, even prior to its first flight, the company had grander ambitions of producing a range of larger regional airliners.