BOAC Canadair CL-44

[b377]

I had no idea til I saw this that BOAC ever operated Canadair CL-44 another bright BOAC idea.

But a tragic end to this US registed 44.



http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/photos/2/4/5/1006542.jpg

[Rainboe]

Give us a clue! What happened?

[Duchess_Driver]

From A.Net...


N228SW (cn 31) Registerd to Seaboard World Airways, leased to BOAC in 1963 and returned in 1965, then leased by Flying Tiger Line the aircraft crashed on approach to Da Nang 24 Dec 1966 killing the 4 crew and 107 people on the ground.

[BelArgUSA]

Looking at the registry, it is a Seaboard World CL44-D4, that airline had quite a number of CL-44s. Evidently was on a ACMI lease to BOAC - mid-1960s, and if contracted on a full time base, got painted in BOAC colors.
xxx
:)
Happy contrails

[b377]

The swing tail of the CL-44 , and swing noses for that matter, of these wide-load planes never cease to amaze me as all support seems to be down to a pair of hinges. How do they manage control surface lines and hydraulics if used? I pressume the tail swings open on external wheels rather than putting all the weight on the hinges.

A few 44s were lost during landings.

"" From AA.Net - Only 39 CL-44's have been built, and this aircraft was the last one. It first flew in March 1965, and was delivered to Loftleidir of Iceland a year later, as TF-LLI. Unfortunately it came to a premature end when it crashed on approach to Barranquilla, Colombia on 6 July 1988""

http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/middle/8/7/9/0693978.jpg

[rubik101]

For any of you interested in more information about the dear old CL44, there is a forum, The CL44 Association (http://www.cl44.org/) with lots of news and information.
My dear Uncle flew them for years with Transmeridian and remembers them very fondly!

[JW411]

BelARGUSA:

Not quite an ACMI lease; I have a friend who flew them and he was BOAC mainline. I shall ask him when next I see him what the deal was exactly but I'm of the opinion that BOAC supplied the crews.

[411A]

I'm of the opinion that BOAC supplied the crews.

Yup, they sure did, I know of one ex-BOAC guy, as well.

[b377]

Who supplied the crew to Lineas Aereas Suramericans in post #5 ?

CL-44 = YuKon ?

[JW411]

Sorry it has taken me so long; my spy tells me that Canadair offered BOAC a deal on two CL-44s in 1962 and that the deal included crew training. BOAC were looking to replace DC-7C freighters which my friend was flying at the time. In the event, BOAC turned down the deal but were still interested in the CL-44.

In 1963, they did a complicated 2-year lease deal with Seaboard & Western concerning CL-44 N228SW with an option to purchase at the end of the deal. As part of the deal, Seaboard trained approximately 10 BOAC crews (pilots, F/Es and Navs) and they flew 3 rotations between the USA and UK per week with Seaboard flying the aircraft on the other 4 days.

[Rainboe]

I notice the CL44 does not have the regular Britannia transparencies on the flight deck. Why did they change them for a small production run?

[JW411]

That is actually a very good question. In fact, the original CL-44 had the same cockpit transparencies as the Brit and so did at least some of the CC-106 Yukons delivered to the RCAF.

I shall do some digging.

[Midland 331]

From somewhere deep in my mental filing cabinet comes the following;-

The US regulatory body decided that the Britannia-type nose did not offer acceptable visibility, and the Convair CV880/990 style nose was borrowed.

Yes, Canadair was Canadian, but the US were highly influential. A google of "CL44 convair windows" leads to an archived PPRuNE thread.

Also here:-

Common Flightdeck Window Panels — Tech Ops Forum | Airliners.net (http://qa.airliners.net/aviation-forums/tech_ops/read.main/131105/)

..but it could be a spotter's myth...

[philbky]

The BOAC lease of the CL44 came at a time when BOAC wanted to purchase convertible B707s but the UK Govt would not issue authority for the purchase, intending BOAC should purchase convertible Super VC10s.

The CL44 rotations were via Manchester and Prestwick each way.

As regards the windows on the CL44, there was much made of the increase in visibility at the time which was reflected in comments in Flight, Air Pictorial, Aviation Week and other magazines.

I have a slide I took of the Suramericanas CL44 at Miami in May 1988. To say it looked - and sounded - rough would be an understatement.

[stormin norman]

Not related to the aircraft but during the 70's the carpark behind was the scene of an
novel theft when a passenger owner of a new BMW came back to find the engine had been nicked !

[JW411]

I have done some digging in my copy of Malcolm Porter's excellent book "CL44 Swingtail". I hope Malcolm doesn't mind but here is a quote that answers the cockpit windows question:

"Midway through Yukon production one airframe (c/n 9) was earmarked as the first civil version of the '44. It clearly stood out from the Yukons on the Cartierville production line. Gone were the two cargo doors; gone also was the Britannia-styled windscreen arrangement and the onboard Auxiliary Power Unit (APU)."

So all of the Yukons had the Brit windows and all of the civilian CL-44s did not.

[WHBM]

In 1963, they did a complicated 2-year lease deal with Seaboard & Western concerning CL-44 N228SW with an option to purchase at the end of the deal. As part of the deal, Seaboard trained approximately 10 BOAC crews (pilots, F/Es and Navs) and they flew 3 rotations between the USA and UK per week with Seaboard flying the aircraft on the other 4 days.
3 rotations a week would have fully absorbed a CL-44 and not have left 4 days free; the transatlantic operation was overnight in both directions. I don't have a BOAC timetable for the time the CL-44 was leased (September 1963 to October 1965) but the year before, 1962, BOAC were only scheduling two transatlantic cargo round trips a week, and that fully absorbed one DC-7CF, with a whole range of stops along the way. There was little/no demand for airfreight at weekends in those days, so Saturday night/Sunday was a day off.

[philbky]

The following links give some interesting background:

boac | lockheed | 1960 | 2443 | Flight Archive (http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1960/1960%20-%202443.html) (you will need to scroll down to the following page on the sidebar)

1963 | 1371 | Flight Archive (http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1963/1963%20-%201371.html)

[Old Fella]

One of my enduring memories is of watching baby elephants being loaded onto a CL-44 in Calcutta in the early 1970's. They were on pallets with just four corner posts and wire sides. It would have been an interesting load to carry I suspect. Not sure what provisions were made to contain the effluent from the animals. I guess they would also have to have been sedated for the flight. I am not sure, however I think the aircraft was a Transmeridian aircraft.

[swingtail]

Detailed information and pictures on all CL44 aircraft can always be found on the website dedicated to the type:
http://www.cl44.com (http://www.cl44.com/)
I would appreciate your input such as stories & images.
http://www.cl44.com/cl44/images/N228SWx1.jpg
Thanks for contacting Peter [email protected]

[Lotus-14]

The change was to flat panels, had to do with visibility. As a FYI, on the Convair comments, Canadair at the time of the CL-44 was associated with General Dynamics which is the connection to Convair. The interesting part of all this is the reason for the CL-44 fall into disfavor was the cockpit windows did not meet later FAA requirements for such things as bird strikes, therefore it could not be used commercially in the U.S. I have heard this was post 9/11 regs, but I'm not sure. By then most of the airframes were history.