Eland Varsity

[Garry Russell]

There were many test bed aircraft in the 1950's but this is one I'd not heard of before

The Eland powered Varsity :o

http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/ ... 02996.html

Looks rather neat

Garry

[Trev Clark]

He, he....I had seen photos of that before (it is rare to be 'one up' on Garry, who is walking encyclopedia ;-) ) and I was amused about the Convair too. Another British triumph in the USA!

[DispatchDragon]

That actually makes it look quite "modern" Garry

If you go through the Air Pictorials next door -- you will find an extensive article on the Ambassador with Elands -- including the ice test rigs.
Also an Ashton with a Conway slung under the belly -- and the Miles Hubois Aerovan with GTISO-520s and the thin wing. really interesting stuff.


Leif

[Garry Russell]

That's where I found it Leif

I thought it looked good like that

Garry

[DispatchDragon]

I figured as much

I notice that there was a British registered Convair used by Napier that lived at Cranfield and Bedford.... I think you will also find that
it was used in the blind flying trials for the autoland system at RAE Bedford - along with a British registered DC6.


Leif

[Garry Russell]

Yep the famous G-ANVP

The only Convair Liner UK registered as far as I know although others have beeen based like the Air UK and in the case of Atlantic....owned

Garry

[Chris Trott]

The "Eland Convair" (also called the Convair 540) was a massive failure unfortunately due to the Napier not putting out enough power (it had ~2000 HP versus the 2400 HP of the R2800's on the original aircraft), especiall during hot-and-high situation, and being unreliable. The RCAF had requested the Napier be evaluated for installation on the Cosmopolitan (Convair 340s and 440s assembled by Canadair) as it would give the aircraft turbine power without having to make major changes to the engine firewall or structure and only requiring a new cowling that fit on the existing hinges. The problems above resulted in all of the Cosmopolitans (and the only ones ever converted to Eland-power) being converted again by Canadair, this time under license from General Motors, to install the Allison 501D5 engine and required aerodynamic changes, resulting in the aircraft becoming essentially Convair 580s.

However, the Rolls-Royse Dart was a much more successful conversion program (coming direct from General Dynamics/Convair as well) and a few dozen CV-600s (CV-340 conversions) and CV-640 (CV-440 conversions) aircraft entered service.

[DispatchDragon]

Chris

I was "fortunate" enough to ride on the jumpseat of a SMB Stages Dart Convair from ELP_ABQ once upon a time ---- they ran the watermeth tanks dry
trying to get enough altitude to get over the Sandias!!!!!! I think I prefered the 580 -- I rode several times on ERAs 580s when they came to the lower 48
to fly NBAA basketball teams == It was a HAWG!


OFFTOPIC

sorry

leif

[Chris558]

A twin Turboprop, years before the 748...Vickers could have had a world beater on their hands there. :think:

[Garry Russell]

Only intended as a test bed though and it would not have been suitable as an airliner........notpressurised for a start

The F.27 predated that and of course there was the various turbo prop Amabassadors.

There were alot of twin T/P before the 748 including the Mamba Marathon, Convair 540, Accountant, Herald to name a few...even the Farey Rototdyne

The Ambassador flew with Dart, Ellands and Tynes.

Garry