Convair Coronado

[Airbanda]

Flew out of Palma yesterday and was surprised to see a CV990 sitting just beyond the military terminal/hangers. No colour scheme left but must be one of the ex Spantax machines.

Is it used for anything or earmarked for preservation in any way?

[SOPS]

I don't know the history of it, but I started flying out of Palma 20 years ago and it was parked there then.

[Phalconphixer]

Website hasnt been updated for a while but take a look here...
Bienvenid@s a Salvemos el Coronado de SPANTAX (http://www.ec-bzo.com/)
There is a link on the site to a 'Save EC-BZO' FB page with more information

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

Great aeroplane. Didn't use aviation fuel - they filled them with Boar's Head tobacco.

[chevvron]

First supersonic airliner from what I've read.

[Peter47]

If you are passing through Lucerne pop into the transport museum where you can go inside one.

https://www.verkehrshaus.ch/en

[joy ride]

Lucerne Transport Museum.

In their video/clickable photos in Peter47's post there is a model of a plane which has a fuselage reminiscent of a DC2 or 3 but with bi-plane wings. Completely unknown to me, can anyone identify it please?

[oncemorealoft]

Joy Ride, the aircraft is a Curtiss Condor.

[joy ride]

Many thanks!

[con-pilot]

First supersonic airliner from what I've read.

I'm not sure, I do know that a Douglas test crew took a DC-8 past Mach 1. As for the 990, it was the fastest airliner* until the Concorde came into service.

I did hear about an Aero Mexico 990 that had a jet upset trying to top a thunderstorm in Mexico, lost control and exceeded Mach 1 before the crew regained control. But that was not official.



*Going from memory, I think the MMO on the 990 was Mach .98 and it could cruise at Mach .92 if you wanted to burn the fuel.

Just found out that the original advertised cruise speed was Mach .92. But the fuel burn was horrendous.

[A30yoyo]

I think the question should be which jet airliners just would NOT go through Mach1...the DC-8 and CV-990 both originally had drag issues which needed modification hence the manufacturers would stress the Mach 1 capability in publicity

[joy ride]

When young I remember hearing that the 990 was fast. Obviously fuel burn and cost would be a limitation on speed in service. I believe that the Vickers VC 10 still holds the record for the fastest trans-Atlantic crossing for a scheduled flight, but different weather conditions would make it difficult to compare fairly the top speeds of different planes.

I flew on plenty of 707s, Super VC10s and a few DC8s. I saw 990s less often but sadly never went on one. The 10 is still my favourite jet airliner.

[philbky]

con-pilot, Aero Mexico did not own any CV990 and I can't find any record of one being leased by them at any time.

joy ride, how do you define the fastest transatlantic crossing? Surely you can only compare point to point times. Here's a couple to think about. October 1992 EWR-LGW Virgin B747-200 5 hrs 07 mins wheels off to wheels down. Average ground speed 679.84 mph.

November 1-2 IAH -LHR British Airways B747-400, 7 hrs 35 mins wheels off to wheels down. Fastest ground speed noted 723 mph, fastest tail wind 148 mph, average ground speed 682.6 mph. Both flights were fast but turbulencence varied from light to moderate.

[SpringHeeledJack]

Those CV990's were smokey beasts (and noisy), it was always nice to see the Swissair machines zipping around Europe and later on the Spantax IT charter flights. It had a sort of 'street thug' look about it in comparison to the 707, DC-8 and VC-10.

As an aside I thought I saw one at Girona airport, well the front part of the fuselage up until the wings, probably an ex-Spantax exmple. I wonder if it was the one that landed at the wrong airport in Hamburg with the chief pilot/owner flying and the plane packed full of press on account of the new route :}

Here's a nice video for the fans Ex-TWA Convair CV-880 Departing From Mojave - YouTube



SHJ

[joy ride]

Philbky, firstly I must apologise to you and Concorde, as I meant to write "the fastest SUB-SONIC trans-Atlantic crossing" DOH!

As I mentioned in my post, fuel and weather would play their part in any comparison, as would the exact distance traveled, payload and various other factors. I have read about the VC 10's record several times in various places soI assume it is accepted knowledge rather than urban myth or wishful thinking, so I just offered it here for the discussion!

[barit1]

philbky:Aero Mexico did not own any CV990

Correct - but Peru did have some. Don't recall the carrier's name, but I spotted one at LAX early 1969.

[Newforest2]

APSA - Aerolineas Peruanas.

[wayoutwest]

they use to smoke their way out off hurn every mondays in the 70s