During one of my rooftop breaks at work, I noticed an ATR with Continental livery approaching DCA. I haven’t seen a prop plane flying into DCA in several years. …a sign of the times I guess.
I’m thinkin you saw a Q400. CO got rid of the ATR in 04ish?
Continental Connection does not operate ATR’s.
It was likely a Colgan Air Dash 8-Q400 operated for Continental Connection.
Piedmont (US Airways Express) also operates Dash 8’s to DCA.
Yep! I imagine Y’all are probably right. The Q400 does appear quite similar to the ATR. I never knew there was anything out there that looked like an ATR. 
Ever heard of QX?
We’re just showing how much of dorks we are by knowing it and correcting it, so no need to be 
Well, the Q400 gives you the same block times as a regional jet (crj-200), with half the fuel consumption and 20 more seats. Sounds like a good compromise to me.
The major difference is the cockpit area. It’s quite easily to tell a Q400 from an ATR72 because the former has a much steeper front than the latter.
The difference between the Q400 and the ATR42 is even more pronounced. Not only is the cockpit different but the Q400 is much longer.
Watched one taxi by tonight when our aircraft was blocking…honestly took a double take even after reading this thread.
Our Dash-8’s don’t automatically generate times, so I call em when I see em. Continental just started flying the Q-400’s into BWI and one was due in the same time as our Dash. I almost called the wrong flight on the ground, because unless you see them together the size difference isn’t obvious and the livery is very similar. We call the Q-400 the “stretch dash”.
CJC3315 | DH8D
CJC3316 | DH8D
CJC3498 | DH8D
PDT4307 | DH8A
PDT4625 | DH8A
Yeah, Air Canada can fool us too, but the first Q-400 I got in had me doing a double take. I work at night and the commuter runway is just barely visible from the tower, so I have to listen to ground or catch a view of them in a light to be sure. Our gates are the closest to the runway, so I try to call them quick.