Avro Canada C102 Jetliner

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Canada_C102_Jetliner

The Avro C102 Jetliner was a Canadian prototype medium-range turbojet-powered
jet airliner built by Avro Canada in 1949. It was beaten to the air by only 13
days by the de Havilland Comet, thereby becoming the second jet airliner in the
world. The name "Jetliner" was chosen as a shortening of the term "jet
airliner", a term which is still in popular usage in Canada and the United
States. The aircraft was considered suitable for busy routes along the US
eastern seaboard and garnered intense interest, notably from Howard Hughes who
even offered to start production under license. However continued delays in
Avro's all-weather interceptor project, the Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck, led to an
order to stop working on the project in 1951, with the prototype Jetliner later
cut up for scrap.

Although bearing some resemblance to the jet powered Avro Tudor 8 and 9 (the
former flying on jet power in 1948 and the latter becoming the experimental Avro
Ashton first flying in 1950), Floyd's design was conceived from the outset as a
commercial jet airliner. The updated design was presented in October 1948, and
in February 1948 TCA responded with changes of their own. Now they wanted the
aircraft to cruise at 500 mph (800 km/h), and they increased the fuel
requirements to allow for wider diversions. In April, Gordon McGregor took over
the presidency of TCA, and told Smye that he did not want it to be the first
airline with a jet. Nevertheless, the project pressed on, and was the topic of a
major article in Aviation Week that November.

The aircraft was scheduled to begin deliveries in May 1952, and enter service in
October, which would have given it a full six years headstart on the 707, which
did not enter service until October 1958, and more than 11 years on its top
short-field competitor, the Boeing 727. Its short-field performance exceeded the
Caravelles (with a comparable number of passengers).

Proposals exist for 30-, 40-, and 50-seat models, as well as 52- and 64-seat
paratroop versions, high-altitude medical lab, photo reconnaissance, cargo, and
crew trainer types. Given the difference in seat pitch at the time (compared to
today), maximum capacity could readily have reached 100 even without a simple
fuselage stretch.


Role
Jet airliner

National origin
Canada

Manufacturer
Avro Canada

First flight
10 August 1949

Primary user
Trans Canada Airlines (intended)

Number built
One (second prototype cancelled while in production, and scrapped)

At the time, in the mid-1950s, the Cold War was starting and the Canadian
authorities were in the midst of expanding the military. Avro was involved in
designing the first dedicated jet-powered, all-weather fighter for the RCAF, the
Avro CF-100 Canuck. The project was somewhat delayed, although the company's
continuing work on the Jetliner caused some controversy. After the prototype
returned, it still had no immediate sales prospects, and C.D. Howe (the
"minister of everything") therefore ordered the program stopped in December
1951. The second prototype Jetliner, nearly completed in the main assembly
hangar, was broken up at that time.

Nevertheless, only a few months later, the enigmatic Howard Hughes first learned
of the design and leased the Jetliner prototype for testing, flying it for a few
circuits when it arrived in Culver City, California. He became a believer,
imagining TWA and National delivering passengers from New York City to vacation
spots in Florida in half the time of the competition. He became desperate to buy
30 Jetliners, but Avro had to repeatedly turn him down due to limited
manufacturing capabilities and overwork on the CF-100 project. Hughes then
started looking at US companies to build it for them; Convair proved interested
and started studies on gearing up a production line. C.D. Howe again stepped in
and insisted that Avro concentrate on its Orenda turbojet and CF-100 jet fighter
programs. Furthermore, the U.S government would not agree to Convair investing
effort and manufacturing space to a civil project in view of the ongoing Korean
Crisis, which itself was beginning to lead into the Korean War.

The project was almost restarted in 1953, when CF-100 production was in full
swing, but this never happened. In 1955, TCA ordered 51 Vickers Viscount
turboprop aircraft from Vickers-Armstrong in England. These were the first
turbine-powered aircraft in regular service in North America. They continued in
service until 1974.

The Jetliner was later used as the aerial photo platform for the CF-100 project.
On 10 December 1956, the Jetliner was ordered surplused, and although it was
donated to the National Research Council, they had no room for it in storage and
took only the nose section for cockpit layout design. The rest of the Jetliner
was cut up on 13 December 1956. The only surviving parts are the nose and
cockpit section in the Canada Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa, Ontario.

Specifications Avro C102 Jetliner

General characteristics
Payload: 12,700 lb
Length: 82 ft 5 in (25.1 m)
Wingspan: 98 ft (29.9 m)
Height: 26 ft 5½ in (8.1 m)
Wing area: 1,157 sq ft gross
Empty weight: 37,000 lb (16,783 kg)
Max. takeoff weight: 65,000 lb (29,484 kg)
Powerplant: 4 × Rolls-Royce Derwent 5/17 turbojet, 3,600 lbf (16 kN) each

Performance
Maximum speed: 500 mph (805 km/h)
Cruise speed: 420 mph (676 km/h)
Range: 1,250 miles (2000 km)
Service ceiling: 40,300 ft (12,300 m)
Rate of climb: 2,220 ft/min (677 m/min)
Wing loading: 51.86 lb/sq ft