EGLL London Heathrow 1966/67

[Brian Franklin]

Definitely the Convair . The fin is much more shark's fin like than that of the DC8, and tapers less

And the wings have over-wing slipper tanks in extended fairings either side of the inboard engine pods.

[cstorey]

Yes, but you can't see those in the airborne shot which was the one in doubt. Interestingly, the area-rule fairings, as they were known , were a bodge to fix very high drag which became apparent in testing . It was this ( and the 5 abreast seating ) which doomed the design to relative failure

[Garry Russell]

They got nicknamed speed bumps...something Convair hated.

[Kevin Farnell]

Tony, thanks for those wonderful photographs.

The aircraft being talked about is without doubt a Convair. Unless Air France ever operated the CV880 then the photo shows the CV990 (also known as the 'Coronado').
The fairings on the top rear of the wings, were, as Cstorey correctly pointed out, drag reduction devices based on the 'Area Rule' principle. These helped the CV990 gain it's reputation as the fastest subsonic jet airliner in the skies, reaching a Mach number of 0.91 (although the HS121 Trident could reach Mach 0.92). The fairings were often referred to as 'Küchemann carrots', after Dietrich Küchemann, who worked on them at the Royal Aircraft Establishment in the 1950's. Similar fairings can be seen on the HP Victor along with many designs by Tupelov.

Regards

Kevin

[Garry Russell]

Coronado was the name given by Swissair.

[Kevin Farnell]

Coronado was the name given by Swissair.

Indeed, Garry.

I believe that Spantax also adopted the name.
I was fortunate enough to see the Spantax aircraft at Birmingham, as the were regular visitors when I was a young lad.

Regards

Kevin

[paul26may]

Jaw dropping.