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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 1474.PDF
Swissair's Convair 880Ms in service BY JOHN STRO U D k FTER a frustrating wait for delivery of its fleet of ConvairCV-990 Coronados for use on South Atlantic and Middle _ and Far East routes, Swissair has commissioned two Convair CV-880-22Ms on its thrice-weekly Zurich-Tokyo services.Operation of these aircraft began on September 10 and they immedi- ately attracted heavy traffic, whereas the DC-6Bs they replacedwere being very poorly patronized. The CV-88OMs, Nos 43 and 45 and registered HB-ICL andHB-ICM, were two of the aircraft originally ordered by Capital Airlines and not taken up when Capital merged with United AirLines. Invited to fly on Swissair's eastern route, I travelled from Zurich to Bangkok in HB-ICL, boarded it again the next day onits return from Tokyo for the journey to Karachi, and then caught the next service to Zurich, operated by HB-ICM. By chance I alsoflew the Zurich-London sector in the latter aircraft when it operated the service in place of a Caravelle. The CV-88OM is not completely suitable for eastern-routeoperation, because some of the sectors are too long; but in spite of this it has quite an impressive performance, as shown by the tableopposite. 1 had not really appreciated the Convair's true size until I flew in it. Really somewhere between the Comet and the big jets,it is essentially a short- to medium-range aircraft, but some of the Swissair eastern sectors are very close to 2,000 nautical miles.In addition, quite strong headwinds are encountered, particularly over the eastern Mediterranean and in the Hong Kong/ManilaTokyo area. The Swissair CV-88OM has accommodation for 64 economy- class passengers and 20 first-class, with, in addition, a ten-seat lounge which can be used for take-off and landing. The CV-990 will have 74 economy-class seats, and 24 first-class with a four-seat lounge. In both types economy seating is five-across. Though the 88OM's interior furnishing and decor is attractive there is no point in describing it here, because it was not produced to Swissair specification. Swissair use noise-abatement techniques at each place served andat Zurich this meant climbing for four minutes with take-off flap setting and leading-edge slats extended. I found Swissair crewsvery alive to the need for noise reduction over populated areas. The Convair has a tendency to roll on reaching its maximumheight for a given weight but this soon damps out as fuel is burned. Cruise is at constant Mach and the aircraft will climb straight fromtake-off to best cruise level at full weight in all temperatures encountered. Out of Zurich, which is 1,414ft above sea level, the880M can operate at full weight (193,0001b) in temperatures as high as 28 C. On the flight I made we could have carried a payloadof 24,2601b out of Zurich in the prevailing temperature of 24°C. Swissair's flight-planning is based on fuel to destination plus 6 percent, with fuel to alternate plus 10,0001b, which is sufficient for an (Above) HB-ICL, one of Swissair's Convair CV-88OMs at Santacruz Airport, Bombay. (Be/ovv) Monsoon cloud over India seen from the Convair at 33,000ft. Much of the flight in this area was made in cloud the tops of the cu-nim reached to between 45,000ft and SO,OOOf<
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