Consolidated Vultee, which later became Convair, built some of the world's best flying boats in the 1930s, and the world's best bombers during World War II. Convair's six-engine B-36 strategic bomber was credited with keeping the world safe during the early throes of the Cold War. But before all these great aircraft took to the skies, scores of ideas and concepts were proposed and analyzed by company management to determine if production would even be feasible. CONVAIR ADVANCED DESIGNS is a book that brings these futuristic, but stillborn, concepts to life for the very first time. This book features many never-before-seen company photographs, models, and drawings of such futuristic concepts as a folding-rotor anti-submarine patrol bomber and a giant seaplane passenger transport launched from a high-speed rail car! Readers will also be fascinated to see how certain seemingly unbelievable designs evolved into actual production airplanes years later, such as the giant Convair Tradewind turboprop seaplane transport.

Consolidated Vultee, which later became Convair, built some of the world's best flying boats in the 1930s, and the world's best bombers during World War II. Convair's six-engine B-36 strategic bomber was credited with keeping the world safe during the early throes of the Cold War. But before all these great aircraft took to the skies, scores of ideas and concepts were proposed and analyzed by company management to determine if production would even be feasible. CONVAIR ADVANCED DESIGNS is a book that brings these futuristic, but stillborn, concepts to life for the very first time. This book features many never-before-seen company photographs, models, and drawings of such futuristic concepts as a folding-rotor anti-submarine patrol bomber and a giant seaplane passenger transport launched from a high-speed rail car! Readers will also be fascinated to see how certain seemingly unbelievable designs evolved into actual production airplanes years later, such as the giant Convair Tradewind turboprop seaplane transport.

World War II saw a tremendous number of advances in aviation technology. Low-speed maneuverability, robust pressurization systems, and implementation of the first jet engines are just a few of the amazing developments made. Returning GIs, having experienced air travel to distant lands, were expected to fuel a postwar travel boom. That perceived need drove companies such as Consolidated Vultee Airlines (Convair) to propose a new series of medium-range airliners, thus giving birth to the Convair-Liner and their turboprop-powered conversions - the Turbo-Liner. More than 55 years after the first flight of the Convair-Liner, turboprop-powered examples of the type are still hauling cargo in the United States and passengers in a few foreign countries. This book discusses the development of the Convair Twins and their eventual transition from piston power to turboprop power. Over 300 photos illustrate Convair Twins' interior, exterior, powerplants, and systems. Find out who the initial delivery customers of the 240, 340, and 440 were. This book covers the many challenges Convair faced and the technologies employed to advance it. Also covered are military models, domestic and foreign airline operators and models flown, second airline owners, and significant dates in Convair-Liner history.

Small Transport Aircraft Technology, originally published in 1980 provides information on commuter airline trends and aircraft developments, and presents the results and conclusions of the full set of completed STAT studies. Five airplane manufacturers, five engine manufacturers, and two propeller manufacturers performed these studies.This report also summarized portions of NASA?s overall aeronautics research and technology programs which are applicable to commuter aircraft design, and suggests areas of technology that might beneficially be expanded or initiated to air and encourage U.S. commuter aircraft manufacturers in their evolution of improved aircraft for this market.

In 1962, a unique transport aircraft was built from the parts of 27 Boeing B-377 airliners to provide NASA a means of transporting rocket boosters. With an interior the size of a gymnasium, "The Pregnant Guppy" was the first of six enormous cargo planes built by Aero Spacelines and two built by Union de Transport Aeriens. More than half a century later, the last Super Guppy is still in active service with NASA and the design concept has been applied to next-generation transports. This comprehensive history of expanded fuselage aircraft begins in the 1940s with the military's need for a long-range transport. The author examines the development of competing designs by Boeing, Convair and Douglas, and the many challenges and catastrophic failures. Behind-the-scenes maneuvers of financiers, corporate raiders, mobsters and other nefarious characters provide an inside look at aviation development from the drawing board to the scrap yard.

Although the Convair Aircraft Company built some of the world's best seaplanes and bombers during World War II the company's rise to prominence as a builder of fighters and attack aircraft did not occur until after 1945. This companion publication to Robert E Bradley's Convair Advanced Designs: Secret Projects from San Diego, 1923-1962, covers these new aircraft types in the same detailed and comprehensive style. Previously unpublished company photographs, models, and drawings of such radical concepts as a vertical takeoff ground-attack fighter and giant eight-engine double-decker military transport combine with other futuristic designs some of which eventually evolved into production aircraft. With much new and comprehensive information and highly detailed technical specifications, Convair Advanced Designs II is a natural follow-up for owners of Bradley's first volume.