by MichaelB » Fri Jun 04, 2010 6:49 pm
That looks like an early 707-320 with the short tail, turbojet engines, and longer wing. Not a -80, but that would have been nice!
One must remember that the DC-8 was a larger airplane to start with and had "growth" built into it. One must also remember that the USAF bought up most of the 707 fleets in the US in order to upgrade their KC-135 fleet to "E" standards: TF-33 engines, vertical fin and stabilizers.
That took a huge number of "local" 707s out of the secondary market. Except for the odd plane, the DC-8 didn't see any military service.
However, the 707 continued to be produced and the last one rolled off the line in 1991, well after the DC-8 was discontinued.
The CV880 (and 990) were good lookin' airplanes, but not market contenders. It's speed advantage was overcome by the B720, to say nothing of their economy. Convair was bxxxfxxxed by Howard Hughes to the extent that they lost a boat load of money (the biggest loss by any US corporation up to that time) and killed them as an airplane builder. They just simply called the market wrong, as did Lockheed - twice!
My recollections are that the pilots loved them, but the mechanics hated them! Service stats were bad, with lots of cancellations for mech problems. I remember flying on the Delta 880 and just loving it!
And who can forget that lovely - and excellent! - Hawk kit of the CV880 from about 1960? That set many a kids heart to flutter! To finish that off, soon after that Revell issued their excellent CV990 model...another sexy airplane! Today things are truly all about "air buses"...
I'll get my Dubena out and take a closer look at the 707...the quality varies in the line as we have discussed, and I don't remember their 707 to be very attractive.