American Airlines 1960′s retro livery on a new 737 (@LAX)

Convair 990 by Willard Womack Via Flickr: The Convair 990 during fuel dumping fight test. The 990 was a follow up to the 880, and did not quite come up to expectations. American Airlines flew them..

On October 2, 2001, Swissair was no more. Because the airline had run out of money, the aircraft had to stay on the ground.

Back for a new year and new set of models reviews. To start out we are taking a look at an Airliner that has never gotten as much coverage of as many others have. Specifically, we are going to look at Atlantis' 1/135th scale Convair 990 kit.

Swissair Convair 990 Postcard

@postcardtimemachine

american airlines convair 990

Events 3.5

1953 – Joseph Stalin, the longest serving leader of the Soviet Union, dies at his Volynskoe dacha in Moscow after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage four days earlier. 1960 – Indonesian President Sukarno dismissed the Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat (DPR), 1955 democratically elected parliament, and replaced with DPR-GR, the parliament of his own selected members. 1963 – American country music stars Patsy Cline, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Cowboy Copas and their pilot Randy Hughes are killed in a plane crash in Camden, Tennessee. 1963 – Aeroflot Flight 191 crashes while landing at Aşgabat International Airport, killing 12. 1965 – March Intifada: A Leftist uprising erupts in Bahrain against British colonial presence. 1966 – BOAC Flight 911, a Boeing 707 aircraft, breaks apart in mid-air due to clear-air turbulence and crashes into Mount Fuji, Japan, killing all 124 people on board. 1967 – Lake Central Airlines Flight 527 crashes near Marseilles, Ohio, killing 38. 1968 – Air France Flight 212 crashes into La Grande Soufrière, killing all 63 aboard. 1970 – The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons goes into effect after ratification by 43 nations. 1973 – An Iberia McDonnell Douglas DC-9 collide in mid-air with a Spantax Convair 990 Coronado over Nantes, France, killing all 68 people abord the DC-9, including music manager Michael Jeffery. 1974 – Yom Kippur War: Israeli forces withdraw from the west bank of the Suez Canal. 1978 – The Landsat 3 is launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. 1979 – Soviet probes Venera 11, Venera 12 and the German-American solar satellite Helios II all are hit by "off the scale" gamma rays leading to the discovery of soft gamma repeaters. 1981 – The ZX81, a pioneering British home computer, is launched by Sinclair Research and would go on to sell over 11⁄2 million units around the world. 1982 – Soviet probe Venera 14 lands on Venus. 1991 – Aeropostal Alas de Venezuela Flight 108 crashes in Venezuela, killing 45. 1993 – Palair Macedonian Airlines Flight 301 crashes at Skopje International Airport in Petrovec, North Macedonia, killing 83. 2001 – In Mina, Saudi Arabia, 35 pilgrims are killed in a stampede on the Jamaraat Bridge during the Hajj. 2002 – An earthquake in Mindanao, Philippines, kills 15 people and injures more than 100. 2003 – In Haifa, 17 Israeli civilians are killed in the Haifa bus 37 suicide bombing. 2011 – An Antonov An-148 crashes in Russia's Alexeyevsky District, Belgorod Oblast during a test flight, killing all seven aboard. 2012 – Tropical Storm Irina kills over 75 as it passes through Madagascar. 2012 – Two people are killed and six more are injured in a shooting at a hair Salon in Bucharest, Romania. 2018 – Syrian civil war: The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) pause the Deir ez-Zor campaign due to the Turkish-led invasion of Afrin. 2021 – Pope Francis begins a historical visit to Iraq amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. 2021 – Twenty people are killed and 30 injured in a suicide car bombing in Mogadishu, Somalia. 2023 – The 2023 Estonian parliamentary election is held, with two centre-right liberal parties gaining an absolute majority for the first time. 2023 – A group of four prisoners escape from the Nouakchott Civil Prison, before being caught the next day.

List of the most beautiful airplanes ever built

1) NAA XB-70 Valkyrie

2) Douglas D-558-2

3) Boeing 747-100

4) Convair B-58

5) Convair CV-990

6) Lockheed F-104A, but only in bare aluminum

Convair 990

VARIG 401 takeoff to Brasilia...

Nikon D300 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.8g

EC95-43199-7

Created from a 1/16th model of a German World War II tank, the Tire Assault Vehicle (TAV) was an important safety feature for the Convair 990 Landing System Research Aircraft, which tested Space Shuttle tires. It was imperative to know the extreme conditions the shuttle tires could tolerate at landing without putting the shuttle and its crew at risk. In addition, the CV-990 was able to land repeatedly to test the tires.

The TAV was built from a kit and modified into a radio-controlled, video-equipped machine to drill holes in aircraft test tires that were in imminent danger of exploding because of one or more conditions: high air pressure, high temperatures, and cord wear.

An exploding test tire releases energy equivalent to two and one-half sticks of dynamite and can cause severe injuries to anyone within 50 ft. of the explosion, as well as ear injury -- possibly permanent hearing loss -- to anyone within 100 ft. The degree of danger is also determined by the temperature pressure and cord wear of a test tire.

The TAV was developed by David Carrott, a PRC employee under contract to NASA.

July 27, 1995 NASA Photo / Dennis Taylor

American Airlines Astrojet (Convair 990), 1964-07-15.

Swissair Convair Coronado by Vintage Cars & People Via Flickr: A Swissair Convair CV-990 pictured on the tarmac of Paris Orly airport. Several Sud Aviation Caravelles can be seen in the background. Here's some additional information on the aircraft registered HB-ICB. Country of origin: unknown

A Convair 990 Coronado, courtesy of San Diego Air and Space Museum.

Swissair was founded as the national airline of Switzerland on March 26, 1931.  

Convair 990 Coronado

Tokyo airport postcard with a KLM DC-8 and Garuda Indonesian airlines Convair 990.

@postcardtimemachine