Convair 990 Coronado

The Convair 990 Coronado, also known as Convair 990 Coronado or abbreviation CV 990, is a four-engine jet airliner in the Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation, known as Convair. It is essentially an enlarged version of the Convair CV 880

Technology

In the construction of the Convair 990 was dispensed with a prototype, since one was built on the recently introduced base model CV 880 Golden Arrow and thus did not produce a " new " aircraft, but an improved version. The CV 990 is a good three meters longer than the CV 880 CV 990 0.90 should be slightly faster than the CV 880 with a cruising speed of about Mach. That's why she got a new wing with flow bodies to prevent the air flow on the upper wing surface exceeded the speed of sound, at the same time they served as a tank. The Convair 990 had four General Electric CJ805 -23B turbofan engines with an aft - fan design. In aft - fan engines, the fan stage is not the front but the back of the engine. A disadvantage of these engines was their big smoke generation.

History

The first Convair 990 left the factory in San Diego in November 1960 and launched on 24 January 1961 its first flight. During the flight testing showed early control problems that were caused by turbulence in the internal engine pylons. This turbulence influenced the effectiveness of the control flaps. In addition, the outer engines under certain operating conditions vibrated strongly. End of March 1961, the flight test for a few weeks interrupted to make changes, which should fix the problems. End of April 1961, took the test again. With the aerodynamic improvements are now designated the type as a CV 990A. Convair had to find that the control problems and the vibrations of the engines were indeed resolved, the aircraft has, however, was no longer able to comply with the promised cruising speed without disproportionate to consume a lot of fuel. This 990 also guarantees regarding payload and range no longer held a CV that Convair had given the customer. Convair subsequently launched a program to reduce drag in cruise flight. At the same time approved by the FAA in June 1961 in the December of the same year moved.

Because of the performance issues and the delayed approval of the type Convair had in the summer of 1961 back to the negotiating table with the two launch customers American Airlines and Swissair and on the follow customers SAS and Varig. Compared with American Airlines Convair was forced to high discounts for the 20 ordered CV 990, while SAS even canceled his order - but later some brand new CV 990 leased from Swissair - Varig and reduced the orders to only three copies.

The first specimen of the type adopted on January 7, 1962, scheduled service on American Airlines. Swissair received nearly parallel to the first machine and gave the Convair another name, Coronado. This designation was later commonly used for the CV 990.

Convair was hoping to be able to offer a more aggressive development of CV 880 CV 990 and thus resolve the problem of low capacity of the CV 880 and to achieve greater sales success. Because of the problems, but already loaded the project early on, so does the CV 990A did not sell nearly as well as the aircraft of the rival Boeing and Douglas. The program should not recover from the early setbacks themselves. After only four years, the production of the CV 990 has already been set in 1965 again. Until that time, only 37 CV 990/990A were delivered. The total production of the CV 880/990-Familie - the production of the CV 880 ran from 1965 - amounted to only 102 copies. Because of the damages caused by the failure of financial losses Convair presented the development and production of civil aircraft in. Instead, one turned increasingly to military aviation and the role as a supplier to the aviation and aerospace industry.

The most serious accident of a CV 990 occurred on December 3, 1972, when a machine of Spantax (registration EC- BZR) in bad weather and low visibility came shortly after taking off from Los Rodeos airport in Tenerife out of control and crashed from 90 meters. None of the 155 people on board, including 144 German passengers survived the accident.

Spantax one of the last commercial operator of the CV 990 was also the Man put two copies of the type until 1987, shortly before the final bankruptcy of the company in March 1988, on a regular basis. Most of the former CV 990 Spantax including the last two copies were placed at Palma de Mallorca airport. Gradually, the aircraft were scrapped, so that at present only one final CV 990 - former Certification EC - BZO - is there. Since the late 1990s there have been efforts to restore the aircraft, which previously failed however to lack of funds. Location: 39 ° 33 ' 29.7 " N, 2 ° 44' 52" O39.5582361111112.7477833333333

A few of the CV produced only 37 990 have survived in better condition than the former mentioned Spantax machine until today. A Coronado Swissair stands in the Museum of Transport in Lucerne, Switzerland, another copy is located at the Mojave Airport as a recognition in California.

Operator ( historical )

Operators factory new machines

Operators needed acquired technology

  • AREA Ecuador
  • Denver Ports of Call
  • Federal Aviation Administration ( acquired including the first purpose-built CV 990 )
  • Iberia ( leased from Spantax )
  • Inter North
  • Lebanese International Airways
  • Middle East Airlines
  • Modern Air Transport
  • NASA (last operators of the type )
  • Nomads Travel Club
  • Nordair
  • Spantax
  • Thai Airways ( leased from SAS)

Specifications

  • Length: 42,49 m
  • Height: 12.04 m
  • Wingspan: 36.58 m
  • Wing area: 209 m²
  • Maximum take-off weight: 115,750 kg
  • Empty weight: 54,893 kg
  • Cruising speed: 917 km / h
  • Maximum speed: 1030 km / h
  • Maximum altitude: 12,495 m
  • Passengers Capacity: 90-149
  • Reach at max. Payload: 6116 km
  • Maximum range: 8900 km
  • Engines: Four General Electric CJ -805 -23B turbofan with each thrust: 71.4 kN
  • First flight: January 24, 1961
Mach number Basel General Electric J79 Convair F-102 Delta Dagger Convair F-106 Delta Dart Convair R3Y Tradewind SM-65A Atlas SM-65B Atlas Convair XB-53 Convair XB-46 Convair XC-99 Convair XF-92
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