American Convair CV-990 Astrojet Promo Spot - 1962

[Applause] and now convair has come up with another airplane and this according to the engineers is as well built for its job as its little relative the 240 this is the convair 990 Astro jet it has the same kind of working look and maybe more this is the airplane with the aft fan engine [Music] this is the airplane with the speed pods on the way this is the brand-new Astro jet let's go over to the flightline and talk to the experts about [Music] [Music] this is Larry Burrell and this is one of the nine 90s for American Airlines the first of 15 American will beginning in the next six months and we've gathered a few experts to talk about it this is Kelley Owen and Kelley as Americans acceptance pilot at Convair Kelley came to San Diego from Seattle where he did the acceptance work for American 707 Astro jets Kelley how is the 990 business you can say for yourself laughs an airplane well I hear it's a good flying airplane - that's true we're very enthusiastic about it are there any special features that you're particularly enthusiastic about Kelley well there are many one of which the speed stability system we're very enthusiastic about we think that the passengers and the crews will be very happy with the way this airplane flies well there's a lot of airplane to stop there how about the brake that's true we have some of the finest brakes in the industry we have over a hundred tons its landing weight on this aircraft which means over 8 million foot-pounds of energy expended by each wheel Kelley this looks like another typical convert airplane through its typical kind of airplane like the tooth party it's rugged and dependable well thank you very much Kelly and now we're going to walk over and take a look at one of the engines this is Frank Kohl assistant vice president of engineering research and development Frank has been for a long time the leading exponent of the fan jet engine Frank how long have you and other engineers been working on fans oh we've been working on fans for from 1953 there abouts this particular engine which is a GE machine is first laid out in 1957 well that's a sizable opening we're standing in front of how does this compare with the 707 Astra jet nacelle it really isn't very much different from in the overall size of it it's they're both the same size engine and they work on about the same thermodynamic principles the main difference is that the fan in this engine is on the rear instead of in the front so that the whole original engine sticks out in the front of the installation you can see the intake here where the original jet engine air goes into that portion of the engine the air for the fan goes through this large cowl up ahead and around the outside it is much larger than a conventional jet engine but like our other Astrid yet it's the same sort of thing in principle well let's see where the air goes this is the outer cowl that surrounds the hole in this cell that the men are lifting up and it contains the inner cowl which will be the next thing that is raised the inner cowl is a duct that the cold air goes through around the outside of the engine to the fan in here is the old jet engine which was the machine that started the jet age we don't call it a jet engine anymore we call it a gas generator because it feeds the hot gases under pressure to the fan that drives the airplane now let's go back and look at the fan well here's the fan defends a freewheeling gadget that's on the back end of the engine in place of the jet nozzle on the original jet engine it has a big wheel on it you can see the fan blades in through here and they spend the blades that you see on the outside our fan blades inside our turbine blades the hot gas comes from the gas generator drives the turbine portion which in turn spins the fan and the fan sucks cold air through the duct around the outside of the engine and at the back to augment the thrust well Frank what about the thrust on this engine well as thrust is 16,000 pounds per engine 64,000 pounds of the total airplane what does how much thrust that is does the fan add to the original jet engine well the the original jet engine had about eleven thousand pounds of thrust so that we've added about five thousand pounds or two and a half tonnes for the exercise of putting the fan on the fact that's very interesting Frank and I'd want to thank you very much I'm going up on the wing are you welcome Larry Wow Wow Larry this is al Perkins Americans director for aircraft development based here in San Diego at convair I always seem to be surrounded by pods these pods Larry stamp this the convair 990 airplane no other airplane can make this claim well what is the main job of the speed pods well one of the simple functions is to carry additional fuel and increase the range of the airplane how much additional fuel al will wrap cards carry roughly a thousand gallons I say that increases the range quite a bit yes now what other function is to do the speed pods have as far as the convair 990 is concerned well the important function of course is to make the airplane go faster and it's real exciting an effective application of the same area rule used on fighter airplanes so what is the area rule al well you've seen the familiar coke bottle the shape to the supersonic fighter airplane fuselage well this is an equally effective application of that rule and if I don't drag or have an effect like that yes you see on even on an airplane as such as this that operates below the speed of sound the air over the wing is supersonic now without these pods a shockwave would form I see in these pods help to dissipate that shockwave then keep it from forming the pods definitely prevent this shockwave from forming and allow the airplane to operate much faster and I would like to say Larry that there's one other important function it's a byproduct actually and that is that it makes the airplane much freer of vibration at high speed and consequently a lot more comfortable rollers for a passenger comfort that's a very important factor it very definitely is and we were very pleased to see that well thank you very much al and that's it ladies and gentlemen a 990 Astro jet keep an eye out for it it's heading your way soon you

Channel: Classic Airliners & Vintage Pop Culture

Views: 21,168

Rating: 4.9324894 out of 5

Keywords: American Airlines, Convair, CV-990, CV-880, DC-8, 707, Boeing, Airbus, Classic, Retro, Vintage, 720B, Jetliner, Airliner, Astrojet, 727, LAX, San Diego, Delta, Fastest Jet, General Electric, B-707

Id: GP_Nv_-AC_I

Length: 8min 48sec (528 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 04 2019