Delta Airlines Convair 880
The rapid development of jet air travel in the late 1950s threatened to leave Convair behind: while its propeller-driven airliners were selling well, they were destined for short-range routes and commuter airlines. Convair wanted to show it was just as capable as Boeing and Douglas, and so it began work on the Convair Skylark in 1956. The name was then changed to Golden Arrow, before finally resuming Convair's civil aircraft naming conventions as the Convair 880--referring to the airliner's top speed: 880 feet per second.
The 880 was designed with one selling point: it was the fastest airliner in the world, with a top speed of 615 mph. This was a result of the 880's powerplant being a derated version of the General Electric J79 turbojet, the same engine that powered Convair's B-58 Hustler Mach 2 medium bomber, as well as the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter and McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II, at the time the fastest fighters in the Western world. The J79s delivered an incredible amount of power and commensurate speed, but it also proved to be the 880's Achilles heel: the turbojets drank fuel at a prodigious rate.
Convair skipped building a prototype, and instead the first production model flew in January 1959. Delta took the 880 into revenue service in 1960 on its Houston-New York service; in 1962, a Delta 880 set a speed record for airliners by completing a flight from San Diego to Miami in three hours and 31 minutes. 880 production ended in 1962, after only 65 were built. The reason for such a low production run was simple: the 880 was simply not economical to operate with its high fuel consumption, and its narrow fuselage made it less appealing to airlines who wanted to operate it on international routes. Boeing undercut the 880's sales by offering the short-range version of the Boeing 707, the 720, which was much cheaper to buy and operate. Coupled with the energy crisis of the early 1970s, nearly all 880s were out of passenger service by 1975. Several flew until the 1990s as test aircraft, including one UC-880 used by the US Navy test establishment at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland.
Convair took a huge loss on the 880. The company attempted to make the 880 more marketable by stretching the fuselage; this resulted in the Convair 990, which had so many changes that it was a new aircraft. Sales for the 990 were even more anemic--only 37 were produced--and Convair, by that time renamed General Dynamics, dropped out of the airline business altogether.
Because of its relative scarcity and comparatively high accident rate (nine were lost to various causes), only six remain today, with only three complete airframes. The best preserved 880 is "Lisa Marie," Elvis Presley's personal aircraft, on display at Graceland.
Surprisingly enough, the nose section of the "prototype" 880 has survived, and this is it. After its first flight in 1959, Ship 1 remained as a testbed until 1964, when it was delivered to TWA as N880AJ. It was in revenue service until withdrawn in 1973 and eventually scrapped. The nose section was saved, repainted in Delta livery, and preserved as a tourist attraction at Underground Atlanta from 1990 to 1997, and then the Atlanta Convention Center Visitor Center until 2015, when it was donated to the Delta Flight Museum. Even as just a nose and standing still, the 880 still looks fast.
Delta Airlines Convair 880
The rapid development of jet air travel in the late 1950s threatened to leave Convair behind: while its propeller-driven airliners were selling well, they were destined for short-range routes and commuter airlines. Convair wanted to show it was just as capable as Boeing and Douglas, and so it began work on the Convair Skylark in 1956. The name was then changed to Golden Arrow, before finally resuming Convair's civil aircraft naming conventions as the Convair 880--referring to the airliner's top speed: 880 feet per second.
The 880 was designed with one selling point: it was the fastest airliner in the world, with a top speed of 615 mph. This was a result of the 880's powerplant being a derated version of the General Electric J79 turbojet, the same engine that powered Convair's B-58 Hustler Mach 2 medium bomber, as well as the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter and McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II, at the time the fastest fighters in the Western world. The J79s delivered an incredible amount of power and commensurate speed, but it also proved to be the 880's Achilles heel: the turbojets drank fuel at a prodigious rate.
Convair skipped building a prototype, and instead the first production model flew in January 1959. Delta took the 880 into revenue service in 1960 on its Houston-New York service; in 1962, a Delta 880 set a speed record for airliners by completing a flight from San Diego to Miami in three hours and 31 minutes. 880 production ended in 1962, after only 65 were built. The reason for such a low production run was simple: the 880 was simply not economical to operate with its high fuel consumption, and its narrow fuselage made it less appealing to airlines who wanted to operate it on international routes. Boeing undercut the 880's sales by offering the short-range version of the Boeing 707, the 720, which was much cheaper to buy and operate. Coupled with the energy crisis of the early 1970s, nearly all 880s were out of passenger service by 1975. Several flew until the 1990s as test aircraft, including one UC-880 used by the US Navy test establishment at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland.
Convair took a huge loss on the 880. The company attempted to make the 880 more marketable by stretching the fuselage; this resulted in the Convair 990, which had so many changes that it was a new aircraft. Sales for the 990 were even more anemic--only 37 were produced--and Convair, by that time renamed General Dynamics, dropped out of the airline business altogether.
Because of its relative scarcity and comparatively high accident rate (nine were lost to various causes), only six remain today, with only three complete airframes. The best preserved 880 is "Lisa Marie," Elvis Presley's personal aircraft, on display at Graceland.
Surprisingly enough, the nose section of the "prototype" 880 has survived, and this is it. After its first flight in 1959, Ship 1 remained as a testbed until 1964, when it was delivered to TWA as N880AJ. It was in revenue service until withdrawn in 1973 and eventually scrapped. The nose section was saved, repainted in Delta livery, and preserved as a tourist attraction at Underground Atlanta from 1990 to 1997, and then the Atlanta Convention Center Visitor Center until 2015, when it was donated to the Delta Flight Museum. Even as just a nose and standing still, the 880 still looks fast.