I was trying out today a Convair-240, for old time's sake. The Convair aircraft have always piqued my interest (primarily because of their ready availability via the dedicated works of the CalClassic (California Classics) and the HJG (Historic Jetliners) groups. I recall flying all the Convair variants available there. And, after so many years, I found them now all, in tact, in my (FW) FSX collection.

The Convair company, itself, has a rather fascinating history. The Convair-240 (similar to the venerable DC-3), was meant to replace it. Although the CV-240 was larger, faster and could carry a bigger payload than the DC-3, it could not outlast the Douglas legend! Likewise, the Convair-880 was designed to directly compete with B-707/DC-8 (being smaller and faster), but, failed commercially, against such elite competition. Convair went on to produce the sleek-looking 990 (a stretched 880), which, however, could not meet the promised specifications either (although, it was the fastest non-supersonic transport of the time).

Convair had also extensive (and very interesting) diversification into military and space domain (John Glenn's tiny (and immensely claustrophobic!) Mercury capsule (I had a chance to see it in the museum) was launched by Convair's Atlas Rocket). But, here, just for a bit of historical interest, please find below the images (2 per aircraft) of the Convair prop-liners (240/340/440/580), jetliner (990), and the massive Convair piston-engined B-36 Peacemaker - in that order (at Orbx PAJN). Thanks for viewing.

Great shots!

Love the B-36!   An amazing engineering feat to get that much aluminum in the air.  So sad that it was created for such a macabre purpose. 

Neat and interesting post! Takes me right down memory lane as I rode as a passenger on these as well as the old Martin 404. The CV580 of Frontier Airlines usted to come through Hot Springs Arkansas when I was a controller there in the late seventies. Such beautiful aircraft with all the romanticism of aviation in that by gone era. Wish A2A would do one of these heavier twin liners.

Great post. Very comprehensive. I was able to see the Swissair jetliner up close at the transportation museum in Luzerne, Switzerland. Wish we had a high-quality native FSX version of the 240/340/440/580 series.

John

Excellent pics! cv580 w/allison 501, power!!!

Yes, I share the same sentiments about this specific lineage of aircraft. It will be, indeed, so nice to have a fresh rendition of one of these nostalgic prop-liners (symbols of the final glory days) for us to fly....And, I mean not just in FS9/FSX...🙂...The CalClassic group's efforts were tremendous, but, one could only take a FS9 simulation so far to make it compatible with the newer platforms (especially from the VC perspective). [Greg Pepper's Note from the CalClassic website: "...have been tested in FSX and P3D v1 and v2 and they work OK".]

Appreciated the above thoughts and comments. Thanks all!

Great post and nice pictures. If you are into military hardware, the name Convair stands out prominently with the iconic B-58 Hustler. I love this aircraft

Great pics of some aeroplanes that are quite often overlooked as far as FS add-on development goes. Trouble is, there's always an 'is the game worth the candle?' balancing point for developers in how much time and effort it's worth risking on making something which might not go over well with buyers in terms of sales numbers; even PMDG came a cropper with that on their MD-11. But since that is the case, I'm still hopeful that maybe Just Flight/Aeroplane Heaven will have a stab at the Convair jetliners, as they seem to have the knack of making airliners that are admittedly 'built to a price', but which have a reasonable level of realism within the confines of those cost/return constraints. Those big Convair jetliners weren't as popular or as successful as the DC-8 or the 707, but any aeroplane that's good enough for Elvis is good enough for me.

Wonderful Post,I Enjoyed The Interesting info as well as The Great Pictures.