Design and Development
With the close of production of the Convair CV-440 in San Diego, Canadair acquired the rights to the design along with the jigs, tooling and even three unsold 440s. With the availability of a Napier Eland turboprop conversion, the re-engined CV-440s became the CV-540, an all-cargo variant.
In 1958, the RCAF wanted to replace their aging C-47 Dakotas with a turbo powered aircraft. Their choice was the Vickers Viscount, but the Canadian government decided against this aircraft. Instead, Canadair offered a series of CV-540 variants powered by Napier Eland turboprops. The project was given the number CL-66 and three versions were considered. The CL-66A was to be a 48/64 passenger aircraft. The CL-66B designed to be a cargo/passenger configuration with a payload of 14200 lb. The CL-66C used the Convair-built CV-440s, having only their new engines fitted at Canadair.
The first CL-66 to fly was a “C” version with its first flight in February 1959; the CL-66B had its first flight in January 1960. No “A” versions were built.
Read more about this topic: Canadair CC-109 Cosmopolitan
Famous quotes containing the words design and/or development:
“What but design of darkness to appall?—
If design govern in a thing so small.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“If you complain of people being shot down in the streets, of the absence of communication or social responsibility, of the rise of everyday violence which people have become accustomed to, and the dehumanization of feelings, then the ultimate development on an organized social level is the concentration camp.... The concentration camp is the final expression of human separateness and its ultimate consequence. It is organized abandonment.”
—Arthur Miller (b. 1915)