iscover
A Convair 240 on the ramp at San Diego airport taxying for its long delivery flight to Australia. The infant TAA gambled on the new and pressurised Convair at a time when rival interests and the media were greatly denigrating the aircraft. The airline was vindicated though as the Australian travelling public soon endorsed the benefits of pressurisation just as they did the smoothness and speed of turboprops when TAA introduced the first Viscounts several years later.
TAA Celebrates 40th Anniversary, Pt II
0 comment
TAA, or Australian Airlines as it has more recently become known has now celebrated forty years of airline service. What is generally not remembered nowadays is the political and funding traumas that marked its early years. In this three-part series we relive the birth of Australia’s ‘other’ domestic airline, examine the aircraft and operating decisions that had such a profound impact on air transport during the fifties and sixties and finalise with a look to the future. New aircraft, a new corporate identity and a post-Two Airline Policy world of new frontiers.
Trans Australia Airlines Celebrates Forty Years of Achievement Part II
The Martin 2-0-2 was unpressurised while the Convair 240 was pressurised. Watkins felt that one of the virtues of flying in a pressurised aircraft would be to minimise air sickness. This tended to make the Convair number one in his book. After looking at both projects he gained the impression that Convair had a much better background for the estimates they were putting out for weights, fuel consumption and performance and he believed it would be a good commercial proposition.
Martin had not flown anything remotely resembling the 2-0-2 as a test vehicle whereas Convair had flown a Twin Double Wasp powered Model 11O (the same powerplants were in the 2-0-2) which was not a direct prototype of the 240. However it was close enough, so he felt that they knew what they were talking about in terms of achievable performance and fuel consumption which impinged on the economy of the aircraft. He liked what he saw of the Convair factory and its engineering methods. The design looked good and simple and yet had a lot of innovations in the equipment on the 240, which made it look as though they would make it a jump ahead of anything else.
Watkins returned to Melbourne with a detailed report of what he had found and was putting together his recommendation. One Saturday morning he was working in his office when he received a phone call from Norman Adam of Brown and Dureau, the Australian Convair agents. A cable had been received from the
This content is available exclusively to Australian Aviation members.
A monthly membership is only $5.99 or save with our annual plans.
- Australian Aviation quarterly print & digital magazines
- Access to In Focus reports every month on our website
- Unlimited access to all Australian Aviation digital content
- Access to the Australian Aviation app
- Australian Aviation quarterly print & digital magazines
- Access to In Focus reports every month on our website
- Access to our Behind the Lens photo galleries and other exclusive content
- Daily news updates via our email bulletin
- Unlimited access to all Australian Aviation digital content
- Access to the Australian Aviation app
- Australian Aviation quarterly print & digital magazines
- Access to In Focus reports every month on our website
- Access to our Behind the Lens photo galleries and other exclusive content
- Daily news updates via our email bulletin
