The 880 Takes Off

At New York's Idlewild Airport last week, a trim, white-painted jetliner, smaller than the familiar Boeing 7075 and Douglas DC-8s. roared off the runway and headed south on Delta Air Lines Flight 873 to New Orleans. In 2 hr. 19 min., the jet touched down at New Orleans' Moisant International Airport, loaded another batch of passengers, and whistled back to New York in 2 hr. 10 min. Both flights, at speeds up to 593 m.p.h., set new commercial records for the 1,184-mile run and sent the nation's newest jetliner off to a high-flying start.

The plane: the Convair 880, designed as the world's fastest transport, with a cruising speed of 615 m.p.h. over medium-range routes.

The new 880 carries only 84 passengers first class, or no tourist v. up to 179 for the Boeing and Douglas jets. Its big advantages are speed--some 40 m.p.h. faster than the 707 and the DC-8--and what promises to be impressive economy of operation. Powered by four commercial versions of the General Electric J-jg engine that pushes the Air Force 6-58 Hustler bomber to Mach 2 speeds, the 880 has so much power that even with a full passenger load it needs only 5,800 ft. of runway for take-off (v. 8,000 ft. for bigger jets), can serve almost any airport that handles four-engined planes.

If all goes well, the plane should prove a real moneymaker for Delta, which ranks as the nation's sixth-biggest line and one of its sharpest. Founded as a crop-dusting line 35 years ago by C. E. Woolman, 70, who still runs it with an old flyer's seat-of-the-pants instinct, Delta was the first to put the pure-jet DC-8 into service last year. Now, with six of the big jets flying, Delta is all set on its long-range routes, which stretch from New York south to Venezuela and west to Fort Worth. The 880 should fit in perfectly on Delta's medium-range (less than 1,000 miles) routes, give the line quite a jump on the competition. Says President Woolman, who expects to have ten of the planes operating by fall: "The 880 is just what I was looking for. The lack of vibration is fantastic. Vibration has the same effect on businessmen as work does--it tires them out. We want them to get there fresh and rested." Delta's Woolman has only a few months before other lines start getting their own Convairs. TWA has 30 of the 880s on order, will get its first this summer. Next year American Airlines will get an advanced design: the Convair 600. At 35,000 ft., American's Convair 600s are planned to cruise at 635 m.p.h., only 135 m.p.h. below the speed of sound.

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