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| Convair 340
Although based on the Convair 240, the 340 was largely a new aircraft with greater wing span (32.11m) and area; a longer fuselage for 44 passengers; R-2800-CB16 or CB17 engines; greater all-up weight of 21,318kg; and many interior design improvements. The first aircraft flew on 5 October 1951 and the first delivery to an airline (United Air Lines) was made on 28 March 1952. A total of 209 had been built by January 1955, when the last two production aircraft were delivered to REAL (Brazil). The USAF also operated 340 as C-131 or VC-131 transports, flying and ECM trainers and for other duties; while the US Navy/Marine Corps received 37 transports as R4Y.
Convair 440 Metropolitan
The 440 was a development of the 340 with modifications to increase speed by about 8km/h and to reduce the noise level in the cabin. Special kits were also made available to convert 340 to 440 standard. Accommodation was provided for between 44 and 52 passengers. The prototype first flew on 6 October 1955 and 162 were built before production was phased out in the spring of 1958. A few were also operated by the USAF and US Navy.
| MODEL | Convair 440 |
| PASSENGERS | 52 |
| ENGINE | 2 x Pratt-Whitney R-2800-CB16, 1864kW |
| WEIGHTS |
| Take-off weight | 22226 kg | 49000 lb |
| Empty weight | 15111 kg | 33314 lb |
| DIMENSIONS |
| Wingspan | 32.11 m | 105 ft 4 in |
| Length | 24.13 m | 79 ft 2 in |
| Height | 8.59 m | 28 ft 2 in |
| Wing area | 85.47 m2 | 919.99 sq ft |
| PERFORMANCE |
| Cruise speed | 465 km/h | 289 mph |
| Ceiling | 7590 m | 24900 ft |
| Range w/max payload | 756 km | 470 miles |
| Vern Baisden, e-mail, 26.05.2011 20:24 Any of the people still out there that flew CV-340-440 aircraft with me? Phil Legg, "Rusty" Herde, Svein Folkvord, Tom Arnold etc. Get in touch. reply | | RC Craemer, e-mail, 03.05.2011 23:26 Flight Crew Plane Captain on C-131F 140994 1977-81. VIP aircraft, flying Admirals in and out of the Norfolk, Va area. Beautiful airplane, factory modified as an executive model, 11 passenger seats. two lavatories,excellent galley.
A real sweetheart to fly and work on. She's in the Naval Air Museum in Pensacola now. reply |
| Vern Baisden, e-mail, 01.03.2011 21:45 The man who gave me the flight training and type rating ride
in the convair 440, was, Bill Conrad. The airplane hadn't flown in a year. The first landing, we touched down a little fast, he called for reverse thrust. being it was the first time in this plane, I pushed the throttles too quickly, the no. 2 engine quit and caught fire. no. 1 went into max power reverse. He told me to set the throttles at idle. Then he cooly restarted the no. 2 engine, the fire blew out and we taxied in. reply | | Vern Baisden, e-mail, 01.03.2011 17:32 I flew the Convair 340 and 440, in the late 70s. We flew the Wall Street Journal newspapers between IAD - GSO and CLT. Had over 2000 hrs. in them. It was a rock stable airplane. Rode smoothly in even the most turbulent air. Had to shut down engines a few times, usually, due to cylinder failures. It flew great on one engine. Loved flying them. reply |
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| | Jim Stalker, e-mail, 06.02.2011 22:58 I flew both the 340 /440 for B&H Freight owned by Corp Air out of BDL for a little over a year in the early 90's and logged about 1000 hrs of pure fun. We flew contract for Flying Tigers to BOS, ORD, Montreal. During that time we lost 2 clyinders ( one I have at home to do a lamp maybe ) and 1 engine shutdown over McGuire AFB with a landing into PHL. Great airplane and experience . Any B&H pilots out there give me an email reply | | Jim Stalker, e-mail, 06.02.2011 22:58 I flew both the 340 /440 for B&H Freight owned by Corp Air out of BDL for a little over a year in the early 90's and logged about 1000 hrs of pure fun. We flew contract for Flying Tigers to BOS, ORD, Montreal. During that time we lost 2 clyinders ( one I have at home to do a lamp maybe ) and 1 engine shutdown over McGuire AFB with a landing into PHL. Great airplane and experience . Any B&H pilots out there give me an email reply | | John Cummings, e-mail, 26.01.2011 02:02 Resort Airlines (last resort airlines) flew two or three of these out of Point Mugu Navy Base daily in the 1980's. We lost an engine on takeoff once at about 200 ft and continued climb through the soup to about 2500 ft to clear on top. They called the equipment and we decended back through the fog and landed without incident. reply | | Bob Stream, e-mail, 08.12.2010 17:32 Hi! back again with this bit of info, for the real buff of the CV240 to CV640 there is a book available at Abebook.com
The Convair Twins 240 to 640, Gary L. Killion, First published in 1979 by Macdonald and Jane's Publishers. OUT. reply | | Bob Stream, e-mail, 07.12.2010 16:56 I was flying the convair 580 based in Columbus, OH for 22yrs. the company bought the 580 in 1972 an operated untill 1995. S /N 509. When the aircraft was sold in 1995 it's total airframe time 9,989 hr. engines and props 935.0 hrs. since new. Great aircraft. reply | | bob Harrell, e-mail, 28.11.2010 21:59 I flew the 340 for about 4 years with United. It was not fast, but dependable. The "hot wing and tail" deicing system worked great. It rode hard in turbulence with that Davis airfoil wing, but all-round, a good airplane. reply | | Bob Hargreaves, e-mail, 29.09.2010 14:31 Hi,
Iwas a maintainer on the T-29 at Harlingen AFB from 1953 to 1958. It was a great aircraft to work on, flew like a dream. reply | | fred erdman, e-mail, 26.09.2010 08:40 Hi Again...
Maybe this will help some one if they would like to know more about the Convairs:
CV-240 WITH ROLLS-ROYCE ENGINES BECOMES A CV-600
CV-340 / CV-440 WITH ROLLS-ROYCE ENGINES BECOMES A CV-640
CV-340 / CV-440 WITH NAPIER ENGINES BECOMES A CV-540
CV-340 / CV-440 WITH ALLISON ENGINES BECOMES A CV-580
CV-580 STRETCH IS A CV-5800
THE CV-770 ON THE DRAWING BOARD WAS A TWIN ENGINE JET. SEEN A PICTURE OF THIS DRAWING AT CONVAIRS FORT WORTH P.R. DEPT.
I KNOW EVERYBODY KNOWS WHAT THE CV-880 AND CV-990 LOOKS LIKE. NOTE: NORTHEAST AIRLINES WAS THE ONLY MAJOR AIRLINE TO FLY BOTH THE 880 AND 990 IN THE SAME COLOR SCHEME.
I HOPE I HELPED SOMEONE WITH THIS INFORMATION....THANKS FOR READING....FRED reply | | fred erdman, e-mail, 26.09.2010 08:17 Hi...
thawkins on 23.09.2007 said the picture is a CV-600 and it is not a CV-340...well everybody is wrong...CV-600 is a turbo CV-240 with Rolls-Royce engines and CV-240's has right hand pax door. This aircraft has a left hand pax door. This aircraft is a CV-540, because it has Napier engines on it. Allegheny Airlines is the only airline to fly the CV-540 in the U.S. They were all converted to CV-580. Napier Enland of Canada done the 540 conversions. The picture shows the "C" regs letter on the tail for Canada. Thank you....Fred reply | | Randy Moore, e-mail, 23.09.2010 23:24 I've just now found this website but two of the comments caught my interest about the 340 that went in by Gorman. I fly that Convair today. It's the oldest 340 (now a 580) in existence, serial number 2. Number 1 went down in the jungles of South America. Number 2 is still going strong, very strong. Look up N580HW for pictures of it on the web. reply | |
| | Dennis LaCruze, e-mail, 10.09.2010 19:14 I believe that this was the basis for the USAF T-29, used for training EWO's and navigators. There were some at Keesler AFB, MS. in the late 50's reply | | Bruce Sorensen, e-mail, 08.09.2010 04:38 Braniff had a predominate fleet of CV-340's but also had CV-440's. Several of the BNF Convair 340's were sold to North Central Airlines and converted to CV-580's. N3428 was one I recall offhand. Those same aircraft also wore the Northwest colors after the NWA /RC merger. reply | | zenmarc, e-mail, 20.07.2010 16:38 شات reply | | Steve Litchfield, e-mail, 23.08.2010 01:20 Flew the 340 /440 for quite a while, and loved every minute. Changed a couple of cylinders as well, but there were times that it became necessary to accomplish the mission, or in places you would not really like to spend a lot of time at. I have meant some of the finest pilots, and greatest people that ever lived within aviation, and I will never forget my round engine days. reply | | BR, e-mail, 23.08.2010 19:00 Flew the C-131F for VR-30 from 1969-1972 during which time we were involved in a midair with a USMC F4. We lost 6 feet of wing but still was able to land safely. Later learned that the same aircraft 141010 was involved in a fatal crash. reply | | don carty, e-mail, 03.05.2010 22:24 Strangly I could find no mention of Bensen Gyrocopters in the listing. The USAF bought 2 models (one glider and one powered by a 90 HP drone engine) for use in trying of all things to make a flyaway evection seat for the F-15.They were designated as the X-25A and B> As far as I know the X-25 powered versoin is hanging the WPAFB museum. I was the first USAF pilot to fly it. reply |
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PROFILE
All the World's Rotorcraft
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Vern Baisden
I became an E5 flight engineer on 140994( left before wearing stripes , but they frocked me. ) Terminal leave . Still have the scars. For 3 years we trained pilots and flew VIPs. Commander of base , COMMANDER Kiffer put in all of his required hours with us . GOODDDD .duty I arrived 82 right after you left , so you remember s chief Haynes, and sc hutchenson don't remember other sc name. 1st class moehrle and Chris Richter mech would have been with you , 1st class Murphy, tin bender was there. 994 and 1018 were special birds because of the men cared for them for years . I bet Haynes snuck in and slept there after retirement . Then after the Caribbean every year, island hopping with head of Russian navy, going everywhere cool with comm kiffer ( most decorated pilot in Vietnam), flying in our own lobsters and Puerto Rican rum, we chgd to 24hr ops out of New Orleans. I left after they went to 24hr ops. Slept upstairs . Recovery, wipe down post op turnaround , rplc ADI transmitter, high pwr turn, wipe down and spray wheel wells and wipe, asflt engineer do all preflight elect and mech checks, sign the log and pull back outside , rest ? Nope 24hrs . But man......they worshipped those two birds , not a splice or compromise anywhere. If we had a frayed wire , I'd replace from. nose to tail . No splicing. If there WAS 15 min Xtra. I was cleaning out adi trmttr orrplcing leaky gaskets. Like a Harley, if it wasn't leaking , it wasn't happy. Fond memories . Pensacola, huh ? Where's 1018 ? E mail me dude !
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