Convair 880

85 seats *610 mph

TWA

Another example of “Machat’s Law” is T. W.A. і Convair 880 nose radome in either all-black, light gray with black nose dot, or all-light gray. The original delivery scheme is illustrated here.

N804TW on the ramp at Phoenix in 1964, in T. W.A. ’s handsome paint scheme, with the slogan Superjet
at the rear of the fuselage, together with the twin-hemisphere logo, (photo: Roger Bentley)

The four-engined jet was at first called the Convair-600, then the Skylark, or the Golden Arrow, and was originally intended to challenge the 707 and the DC-8 on domestic routes. It was sponsored by T. W.A., still strongly influenced by Howard Hughes, who, late in 1955, placed an initial order for 30 Convair 880s, as the new airliner was eventually called. Delta Air Lines also ordered the 880 and was the first into service, on 15 May I960.

This was because T. W.A.’s owner, Howard Hughes, was running into difficulties. The air­line was in an unusual position in that its aircraft were owned by Hughes’s powerful Hughes Tool Company (Toolco) to which it paid a rental of about one million dollars per year per air­plane. But even Toolco’s pockets were not bottomless, and could not finance T. W.A.’s purchase of the Convair 880s. As a consequence of the legal delays, which had far-reaching conse­quences (see page 73) T. W.A. did not begin Convair 880 service until 12 January 1961.