Sud Aviation SE-210 Caravelle

[mycole]

Spotted at Columbus International Airport

[skippyscage]

a beautiful French built Se210 Caravelle 

that one is ex Airborne Express used for cargo ops.

[ecuhockeyguy]

looks like something by Convair...lemme do some research and Ill get back to you.

ah you beat me to is skippy.....grrr

edit, of course I was wrong, it wasn't convair, it was Sud Aviation

[mycole]

thanks gentlemen... i knew this was the place to look.  she is indeed beautiful.  i love the windows!  i wonder if the shape of the windows was influenced by the de havilland comet square-window debacle or if these were just an example of french pinache?   

either way, it's a lovely aircraft.

[skippyscage]

it was a mid 50's aircraft

it was first jet airliner to mount the engines at the rear leaving the wing clean - something that Douglas would copy in the later DC9 (who said the Russians were the ones who copied  )

I think United was the only customer in the USA - before being sold to the likes of Airborne Express.

Most ended up in Africa doing arms and drug runs when the airlines in Europe sold them off - AFAIK there are no flying examples left 

I remember seeing SAS, Finnar, Luxair, Air France, Sterling, Iberia, RAM and Air Inter examples at Heathrow and Luton - there were also smaller French charter aircraft knocking around, and a few nations used them in a military guise for transport.

Funnily enough I'm just editing an example that is at Tuscon - I'll post that in a wee while

(Maybe I should move this post under its own aircraft type?) - done!

[skippyscage]

here we go - shame to see lots of bits missing... but at least she is in the dry air of AZ, and at least she is still in one piece

[skippyscage]

ok time to add some showing them in service.

Compagnie de Transport Aerien Geneve (CTA) was a subsidiary of Swissair who later merged with another Swissair subsidiary Balair

the 2nd shot is of interest as it is a leased Finnair example

shot in August 1983 at Zurich

[Steve Rice]

Caravelle N902MW at New England Air Museum.  Still looking modern and current.

[mycole]

another view of the Columbus Caravelle.

[skippyscage]

cool - still looks in good condition

[mycole]

cool - still looks in good condition

I wonder what this is at the airport for.  It's been there forever.  From Google Earth Hacks...

Sud Aviation Caravelle in Airbourne Express Colours. The first Caravelle painted in United Airlines markings is currently located at Port Columbus International Airport in Columbus, Ohio. This aircraft never operated with the airline, but flew at the Paris Airshow in 1957 with United Airline's markings to promote the sale of the Caravelle to the airline. This aircraft flew for many years in Brazil before being acquired by Midwest Air Charter (later Airborne Express) in London, Ohio in 1979. In 1982 it was donated to the Ohio History of Flight Museum at Port Columbus International Airport and was displayed outside the Museum for many years. The Museum closed in 1995 and the Caravelle was donated to the Port Authority of Columbus which moved it to a remote ramp at the airport. In 1998 the Airport's fire department began using the airframe for firefighting training. Today the aircraft remains near the southeast corner of the airport in deteriorated condition and missing its nose radome.

[skippyscage]

Air Midwest (ABX) used to be based at an airport called Wilmington Industrial Air Park, OH - I saw a couple of them there in the 1980 along with YS-11s, DC-8s, CV-600s, Doves, HFB-320s etc all carrying freight.

The 2 SE-210s I saw then were N907MW and N904MW - dunno if it's one of those frames? (note the registrations end MW = Mid West, or Air Midwest as we knew them)

That airfield has now been built up to become Airborne Park and is much larger than it was back then.

[David Atkinson]

Ah, the Caravelle - always one of my favorite jets, shame there's none left airworthy...

I've been scanning some of my older stuff lately, here's a few shots of the old bird in her heyday - first some French ones...

David

[David Atkinson]

...And a couple of other European operators...

David

[skippyscage]

ahhh the Sterling examples - used to see loads at Luton back in the day