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The Maserati of jets: Convair 990 Coronado.

Article Excerpt
It is perhaps ironic that in March 2001, Boeing announced plans for its 'Sonic Cruiser,' a revolutionary long-range jetliner with Mach .95 cruising speed. The events of September 11th that followed just six months later put a damper on the airline business in general, but what is equally ironic is that the Sonic Cruiser was going to burn even more fuel than conventional jets. Would travelers pay more money just to spend one hour less in the air on a trans-Atlantic flight? Further adding to the irony was the fact that this concept, which was ultimately shelved by the manufacturer, had been tried more than 40 years earlier.

With civil aircraft manufacturers concentrating more than ever on fuel-efficient designs, many have forgotten the heady days of speed races across America shortly after the first U.S.-built jetliners cut transcontinental flying time in half. The turbine engine's efficiency represented a quantum leap in cost savings for the airlines and this advancement, coupled with 15-cent kerosene and added "jet surcharges." made money for the airlines as customers clamored to experience 600-mile-per-hour flight. Among the early American jetliners, one was designed to be the fastest of them all.

Convair, a division of General Dynamics, was flush with the success of the twin-engine Convair-Liner design, of which more than 1,000 were produced. Rather than sticking to its short-haul

*** Editor's Note: I'll never forget my first flight in a Convair 990. In a day and age when first-generation jets were taking off at a modest six-degree deck angle, the 990 leaped into the air at what seemed like twice that and then immediately banked into a steep noise-abatement turn just to top it off. There was a noticeable gasp throughout the cabin as my fellow passengers enjoyed their first experience with the airplane's effortless power and sprightly handling as well. For those of us who'd flown in the more mundane Boeing 707s and Douglas DC-8s of that era, this ride was definitely something else. I described it as "like being in a B-58 with 100 seats in it!" Sadly, the 990 never became as successful as either the 707 or DC-8, both of which are still flying today as tankers and AWACS aircraft or long-haul jet freighters for major cargo carriers, respectively.

We are proud to welcome noted aviation author and historian Jon Proctor to the pages of WINGS & AIRPOWER, so sit back, relax, and enjoy the story of the fastest jet airliner in the world until the Concorde.

niche market, company managers chose to enter the passenger jet arena with a longer-range model and sold only 65 of the four-engine Convair 880s. The corporation's board, struggling to improve the numbers, decided to stretch the 880 design by 10 feet, upgrade its engines, increase the wing and horizontal tail areas, introduce leading-edge slats and produce what was to be a plane with greater range, more capacity and higher cruising speed. Designed as the...

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