Convair promo film – blast from the past

Here’s a piece of aviation history and a cool movie I found on youtube, a 1954 Convair promotional movie:

When Convair and Martin introduced the CV240 and the M404 some people thought the airplanes at a MGTOW of over 40,000 lbs were too big for just 2 engines. The Convair 240 had very limited range, being designed before the advent of interstate highways when traveling 500 miles was still a big trip. Convair’s main improvements for the CV440 in the 1950s was that the airplane had weather radar and an exhaust muffler.

I have some time flying cargo in Convair 340s about 10 years ago. By that time the airplanes had become quite difficult to operate, many electrical components had poor reliability and the Pratt ‘n Whitney R2800 radial engines required special attention. But the flying was always fun 🙂