When the Convair 880 was first introduced in May 1960, it was the fastest commercial aircraft ever built. Subsequent variants of the aircraft would hold this record until 1968, when the supersonic Tu-144 was introduced.
Even today, at a time when all commercial aircraft fly subsonic (for the minute anyway!) the Convair 880 is still among the fastest airliners in history!
Pre-Convair 880
During WWII, American aircraft manufacturers Convair and Vultee were among the largest manufacturers in the country. In 1943, both companies chose to merge with one another forming Consolidated Vultee (otherwise known as Convair).
For the most part, both manufacturers had only ever made military aircraft. In 1951, the company had made the incredibly successful Convair 240 line of turboprop airliners, but that was their only previous experience.
After WWII, all airliners of the era were turboprop or piston-powered, this included the largest airliners of the day- the Lockheed Constellation and the Boeing 377.
However, WWII had produced the first jet engines. These jet engines were much faster than turboprop and piston engines, as well as being more fuel efficient and having longer ranges on average.
Naturally, airlines began demanding jet-powered airlines for commercial use, rather than just military uses. In 1952, these demands were answered by British aircraft manufacturer de Havilland, with the de Havilland Comet.
Seeing this as a threat to their dominance, US manufacturers, like Boeing and Douglas, released their own jet airliners in 1958 and 1959 respectively.
Convair too wanted to release their own airliner. However, Delta Air Lines saw the future in speed, and contacted Conavir to design an aircraft that was faster than both the proposed Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8.
Development
Conavir began development on the aircraft that Delta had specified in April 1956. As with all of their products in development, Convair gave the project the name of Skylark, before changing it to Golden Arrow at Delta’s behest.
As per Delta’s requests, the Golden Arrow was designed to be faster than both the airliners proposed by Boeing and Douglas. Due to this, the aircraft was designed to be lighter per square inch than its competitor aircraft.
However, jet engines of the era proved to be underpowered in the grand scheme of things. The aircraft weighed only slightly less than other aircraft, and had only marginally better top and cruising speeds.
As such, Convair reached out to General Electric, the world’s leader in jet engines. Convair told GE about their speed issues, and GE offered a civil variant of their famous J79 (which powered the F-104, F-4 and B-58), called the CJ-805-3.
Whilst Convair engineers were attempting fix their weight and power issue, Convair marketers and executives were coming up with a designation for the aircraft. After all, Skylark and later Golden Arrow were only project names, not aircraft designations.
As with other aircraft manufacturers, Convair used numbers to designate their aircraft, with all numbers up to 540 being taken. Initially, Convair settled on calling it the Convair 600 before redesignating it as teh Convair 880.
Both of these numbers were in reference to the aircraft’s cruising speed of 600 mph or roughly 880 feet per second. Upon receiving FAA certifications, the aircraft was given the code CV-880, which it is also known by.
Service
Following the CV-880’s first flight on January 27 1959, the aircraft would enter service the next year, with Delta Air Lines.
From here, the CV-880 would have one of the most intriguing and diverse service lives of any aircraft ever made!
Commercial
The vast majority of the CV-880’s service life was spent as a commercial airliner. The first CV-880s were flown by Delta Air Lines in May 1960, but by the end of 1960, six other major world airlines were also operating the CV-880.
These seven airlines included VIASA, Japan Airlines, TWA, Cathay Pacific, Northeast and Swissair. These airlines all operated the standard CV-880-22, whilst Delta operated the CV-880M, a faster variant with more powerful engines.
For the most part, these aircraft operated mid-range, transcontinental routes. However, these were usually routes favored by businessmen, who needed to travel between the two cities quickly, and would thus pay more.
Nearing the end of the Convair 880’s commercial service life, many airlines began to get rid of them, selling them to other airlines. Many more airlines would lease them to other smaller airlines for a profit, whilst acquiring newer and larger jets.
At the very end of their useful service life, many of these smaller airlines would that were leasing the Convair 880s from larger airlines, would lease the 880 for themselves.
Here, the CV-800 would act similarly to a modern day private jet, albeit transporting over 100 individuals, rather than just a few. Naturally, this was very expensive and saw relatively few takers.
Cargo
Once commercial airlines began to get rid of the CV-880 fleet, many cargo airlines queued up to buy great aircraft at a discounted rate. For many of these cargo airlines, they were attracted to the speed of the 880.
For them, the ability to transport airmail and high-value goods cross-country in an extremely quick fashion allowed them to have higher customer satisfaction, due to faster turnaround times.
On top of this, several large American manufacturing corporations also operated CV-880s to transport larger parts to and from their facilities across the US. Perhaps the most famous use of this was the Hughes Tool Company (owned by Howard Hughes!)
FAA
In 1961, the FAA approached Convair about acquiring several Convair 880s for various uses. By 1962, the FAA had bought and received a total of two CV-880s from Convair.
The FAA used the Convair 880 for a few reasons. Primarily, the CV-880 was used to train flight inspectors, who would use what they learned on the CV-880 to evaluate airports and other aviation-related equipment for years to come.
On rare occasions, FAA higher up had to be transported from the main FAA headquarters in Washington DC to its smaller field offices dotted around the country. Sometimes, airlines didn’t fly there quick enough, so they’d fly there directly, using the CV-880s.
Military
In 1980, the US Navy acquired one of the FAA’s two CV-880s, designating it as the UC-880. Initially, US Navy brass argued over the purpose of their newly acquired CV-880.
Some of the top brass wanted to see the CV-880 act as a troop transport aircraft. Others wanted it to act as a flying office for the Navy brass (similarly to the C-40 Clipper today). Others wanted it to act as a cargo aircraft.
Due in part to this disagreement, the US Navy chose a completely different role for the UC-880. Air-to-air refueling. The US Navy sent the former FAA UC-880 back to Convair to be reconfigured as an air-to-air refueling aircraft.
However, needs from the US Navy resulted in it being reconfigured to be a half cargo and half tanker. Once the UC-880 was delivered to the US Navy, it was assigned to the Naval Air Test Center at NAS Patuxent River.
Whilst in US Navy service, t would serve as the tanker for all aircraft being tested by the US Navy. This included the F-16 and F/A-18 as well as the F-14 and F-15.
On one of these flights in 1995, the aircraft suffered from explosive decompression, which damaged it beyond repair. However, unique systems designed into the CV-880 made it so there were no fatalities.
Specifications
Initially, the CV-880 sold quite well. This emboldened Convair to produce another variant from the standard CV-880-22. This new variant would be designated as the CV-800-22M.
The CV-880-22M was almost the exact same as the CV-880-22, however the 22M weighed more on takeoff. The vast majority of this extra weight was down to the heavier, and more powerful jet engines.
| Specifications | Convair 880-22 | Convair 880-22M |
|---|---|---|
| Length | 129 ft 4 in (39.42 m) | 129 ft 4 in (39.42 m) |
| Wingspan | 120 ft (36.58 m) | 120 ft (36.58 m) |
| Height | 36 ft 4 in (11.1 m) | 36 ft 4 in (11.1 m) |
| Crew | 3 | 3 |
| Seats | 110 | 110 |
| Cruise Speed | 0.80 Mach (990 km/h; 615 mph; 535 kn) | 0.80 Mach (990 km/h; 615 mph; 535 kn) |
| Range | 2,472 nmi (4,578 km; 2,845 mi) | 2,503 nmi (4,636 km; 2,880 mi) |
| Service Ceiling | 41,000 ft (12,000 m) | 41,000 ft (12,000 m) |
| MTOW | 184,500 lb (83,700 kg) | 193,000 lb (88,000 kg) |
How Safe Was The Convair 880?
Sadly, there are no airworthy Convair 880s still flying, not even as museum displays. The last CV-880s were operated as commercial airliners in the 1980’s, meaning that unless you have a time machine, you’ll never fly on a CV-880.
Despite this, when looking at the CV-880, it’s still important to understand how safe (or indeed dangerous) the CV-880 was. This is both by modern and by contemporary standards.
When the CV-880 was released, Convair claimed that it would be among the safest aircraft ever released. Then, not even a week into the CV-880’s Delta service, a CV-880 crashed, killing everyone onboard.
Thsi was the beginning of the end for the CV-880.
By most accounts, both contemporary and modern, the CV-880 is incredibly dangerous. In total, 65 CV-880s were built, whilst ten of them crashed, resulting in a total of 181 fatalities.
For the most part, the official reasons for these crashes are listed as pilot error of varying degrees. However, one was blown up by a bomb left by the Viet Cong mid-flight (this was during the Vietnam War).
With the former being said, two crashes did have technical errors. Whilst taking off, the aircraft had a tendency to yaw to the right or left, under certain conditions, this was made worse, and the aircraft crashed into the runway.
How Successful Was The Convair 880?
If you know anything about the CV-880, you’ll know that it holds a mixed view in the avgeek community. For some, the aircraft was an engineering masterpiece, whilst for others it was a waste of an aircraft.
However, there is one consensus: it was a failure.
In terms of its tech and specs, the Convair 880 was a masterpiece. No subsonic before it (and only one after it- the Convair 990, itself derived form the 880) had ever managed to go as fast.
However, in just aout every other regard, the CV-880 was a complete and utter failure by just about every definition.
In total, Convair only sold 65 copies of the aircraft, making it the second worst sold commercial jet aircraft ever sold (behind the aforementioned Convair 990).
For the most part, this can be attributed to one thing: money. Convair believed that airlines would pay absurd amounts of money for the fastest aircraft in the skies, so they priced it as high as possible.
Naturally, airlines refused to pay this price, and chose instead to buy slower aircraft that carried more people (which in turn, brought in more profit).
Then there was also the case of design. The aircraft operated a complicated five abreast seating plan, something that’s common today, but wasn’t in the 1960’s. This made it difficult for airlines to operate, so they simply chose not to.
Legacy
Despite being such an incredible failure, the CV-880 did leave a rather sizable impact on the aviation industry as a whole. Some of this was seem immediately, whilst some has only been seem recently!
Convair
The early initial success of the CV-880 emboldened Convair to develop the Convair 990. This was a larger and faster aircraft developed from the CV-880, which initially sold quite well too.
However, over time both the Conavir 880 and 990 were complete and utter failures. In total, Convair only sold 65 CV-880s and only 37 CV-990s, still one of the lowest number of sales for a jet aircraft to this day!
These low sales meant that Convair never recouped the money it had invested in the CV-880/990. Although estimates vary, many estimate that Convair lost a total of $185 million as a result of these low sales.
However, it wasn’t just Convair’s bank balance that didn’t recover, but also its reputation. For the longest time, Convair was the butt of many aviation-related jokes, mostly relating to the CV-880/990.
As such, Convair swore off producing commercial jet aircraft for good in 1963.
Convair 880
The vast majority of the 880s were operational during the 1960’s and 1970’s. By the 1980’s, they had become too expensive to operate, and were subsequently phased out and replaced by newer jets like the 757 and 767.
By the mid-1990’s, most cargo airlines had retired their CV-880 and CV-990s, due in part to their fuel inefficiency, but also in part due to their comparatively small size.
At the turn of the millenium, all CV-880s and CV-990s had been retired. For the most part, they have been scrapped, as airlines had no reason to store them, due to their rarity.
Despite this, a few have been preserved in the world’s various aircraft graveyards. Due mostly to the general aviation public not being familiar with them, aviation museums have often forgone adding them to their collection.
Future Aircraft
By most accounts, the CV-880 was a complete failure. Despite this, many of the new technologies that were pioneered on both the Convair 880 and 990, were replicated on subsequent jet aircraft.
For instance, the CV-880 was one of the first jet aircraft to utilize Krueger leading edge flaps. Whilst it was by no means the first, the CV-880 did help to popularize them.
Today, just about every jet airliner, regardless of whether it is an A300, 737 or ERJ-195, have Kruger leading edge flaps. And this is mostly due to Convair ensuring that the CV-880 and CV-990 both had the Krueger flaps.
Did you ever fly on the Convair 880? What was it like? Tell me in the comments!