Aérospatiale Corvette
The Aérospatiale SN 601 Corvette is the French company Aérospatiale a type of aircraft for business flights and other tasks. It is a twin-engine low-wing monoplane with retractable landing gear, pressurized cabin and a cruciform tail. The first flight was on 16 July 1970.
History
In the late 1960s Aérospatiale began with the design of a medium sized jet-propelled multi-purpose aircraft, which should take up to 12 passengers with close seating. The design should be business aircraft primarily, but can also fill several roles such as air taxi, ambulance, cargo and training services.
An experimental machine called the SN 600 first flew on 16 July 1970. Was destroyed after 270 hours of flight time in an accident on March 23, 1971. On 20 December 1972 flew the first production aircraft SN 601, which in some respects differed from the prototype and in the meantime had been given the name Corvette 100. The second Corvette, the first in full production standard flew on 7 March 1973., The French flight certification was granted on 28 March 1974. Deliveries began in September 1974. Originally planned delivery of 20 aircraft in production in 1974 and six machines per month had to be abandoned due to lack of demand in the following years. Production ended in 1978 after only 39 produced series machines, a commercial success was due to major international competition in the market segment of the business aircraft. Plans for a prolonged good two meters 18- seater Corvette 200 were not pursued. It remained the only attempt by Aérospatiale to gain a foothold in the business aircraft market.
Most of the 39 units built are still flying today, especially among European airlines in regional traffic.
Description
The aircraft was built in all-metal construction and has an air-conditioned pressurized cabin. The low-set wings are zurückgepfeilt and come with double slotted flaps, spoilers and three hydraulically operated air brake flaps on the top and bottom. There are fuel tanks at the surface ligands. The two jet engines sit in gondolas on the rear fuselage, so a cross-tail came for installation to avoid exposing the tailplane the exhaust jet. The retractable -wheeled nose landing gear is equipped with an anti -lock braking system. The cockpit flying blind with instruments can be flown by one or two pilots.
The prototype SN 600 had two turbofan engines JT15D -1 Pratt & Whitney Canada, each with 998 kp thrust, the SN 601 series machines were more powerful JT15D -4 engines.
The fuselage of the 601 series machines SN was extended compared to the prototype and could accommodate 14 passengers. A low seating, the optional installation of toilets and alternative configurations for different tasks were also offered.