Convair 990 Coronado

what is it?

The Convair 990 Coronado is an American narrow-body four-engined jet airliner, produced between 1961 and 1963 by the Convair division of American company General Dynamics. It was a stretched version of the earlier Convair 880, and was produced in response to a request from American Airlines: the 990 was lengthened by 10 ft (3 m), which increased the capacity from between 88 and 110 passengers in the 880 to between 96 and 121. That was still fewer passengers than the contemporary Boeing 707 (110 to 189) or Douglas DC-8 (105 to 173), although the 990 was 25–35 mph (40–56 km/h) faster than either when cruising.

🔎How to recognise it: 4 jet engines · low wing · retractable tricycle gear · 36.6 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 1,000 km/htop speed
• range 6,115 kmwithout refuelling
• seats 149passengers
• size 114.8 tmax take-off weight
• built 37made in total

Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).

fun facts

• 🎂First flew 65 years ago, in 1961.
• 🏎️Top speed is 7.7× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 🚗Wingspan of 36.6 m: about 8 cars parked nose to tail.
• 🐘Fully loaded it can weigh as much as 19 African elephants (~6 t each).
• 🌍Range of 6,115 km: Amsterdam to New York (≈5,850 km) without stopping.
• 🏔️Can fly 1.4× higher than Mount Everest (8,849 m).

jet: Gas turbine pushing air out the back (turbofan or turbojet): fast and high-flying.

spec sheet

first flight

1961-01-24

introduced

1962

retired

1987

status

retired

number built

37

role

narrow-body jet airliner

origin

🇺🇸 United States

makers

Convair

engines

4× General Electric CJ805-23B

crew

4

passengers

149

length

42.6 m

wingspan

36.6 m

height

12 m

max take-off weight

114.8 t

top speed

1,000 km/h

cruise speed

896 km/h

range

6,115 km

ceiling

12,497 m

wings

low wing

landing gear

retractable tricycle gear

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.