Smoke and Noise

[C]

Found this video on YouTube. It might not fly but the noise is epic! The Queen of the Skies at its best!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWOQ4VCgbdo[/youtube]

[Shadowcaster]

Lovely stuff, the most beautiful Jetliner in the world and I think it's still the fastest Airliner, except Concord, to cross the Atlantic.

[Flacke]

Lovely stuff, the most beautiful Jetliner in the world and I think it's still the fastest Airliner, except Concord, to cross the Atlantic.

The only two 4-engine airliners that were faster were the Convair 880 [like Elvis had] and the Convair 990. The VC-10 and the Convairs had no trouble passing most Learjets. They were ahead of their time.

[Shadowcaster]

The only two 4-engine airliners that were faster were the Convair 880 [like Elvis had] and the Convair 990. The VC-10 and the Convairs had no trouble passing most Learjets. They were ahead of their time.

They certainly were before their time, out of curiosity I had a look for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic and found this http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/british-airway ... am-1482875 I bet that was quite a ride.

And this on the fastest ever crossing http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/wor ... e-atlantic

Cheers
Rich

[Roypcox]

Flacke; After my career with the Army I got a job with an oil field production company that had Convair 240 and 580. The 580 would cruise at about 315 knots. It was a wonderful ac to fly It had turbines in it and it would tip toe through the tulips so to speak. The 240 was like a DC3 on a tri gear but with more power and speed. I think it had a air stair on the port front. The ap was hard to hold settings. You damn near had to hand fly it. But the 580 was sweet to fly. Blessing to everyone!!!homeboy

[C]

And a different perspective: one that is available when the aeroplane isn't planning to take off!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd7dBM3ArPM

[Flacke]

Flacke; After my career with the Army I got a job with an oil field production company that had Convair 240 and 580. The 580 would cruise at about 315 knots. It was a wonderful ac to fly It had turbines in it and it would tip toe through the tulips so to speak. The 240 was like a DC3 on a tri gear but with more power and speed. I think it had a air stair on the port front. The ap was hard to hold settings. You damn near had to hand fly it. But the 580 was sweet to fly. Blessing to everyone!!!homeboy

Hi Roypcox, my Brother in Law used to fly the Convair 580 [plus many many others] and he really liked the power and speed, even when at max. weight. I remember that he told me they didn't put too much time into planning where all the switches and levers went when they converted from Radials to the big Turbines. It was quite haphazard but he said that you eventually got used to where all of the important stuff was.

This was the same man that gave me all of my DC-3 experiences and I will always be thankful to him for that. I still love the DC-3 and fondly remember how it handled in all weather conditions. It was very stable and solid-feeling. It was also a good instrument platform because of that. The only trouble was that the instruments were all World War Two vintage. On long trips though, I wished for a few more knots in cruise.

[Flacke]

I had a look for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic and found this http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/british-airway ... am-1482875 I bet that was quite a ride.


Cheers
Rich

The writer in the B-747 story is the kind of writer that drives Aviators mad.
He specifically stated that the B-747 "broke the sound barrier". Of course , it did not. It would have flown at its normal certified cruise speed. Then, with the very big tail-wind its speed over the ground is what made it cross the Atlantic so quickly. An aircrafts speed is always relative to the air its in, not the ground its flying over.
Everything else he said was basically fine except for the "broke the sound barrier" part. That is where he may have mislead a lot of people.