Convair CV-990 Coronado

Updated: October 2026 – Four engines, a slender fuselage and, on each wing, two thick, cigar-shaped bulges that stick out past the trailing edge: once you’ve seen this silhouette, you won’t forget it. The Convair CV-990 Coronado was the fastest airliner in the world in the early 1960s – and at the same time one of the most expensive misjudgments in aviation history. For spotters in the German-speaking countries it is a special classic: Swissair gave it its name, and charter flights out of Berlin-Tegel made it known in Germany as well. Here you’ll learn how the Coronado came about, how to recognize it and where you can still find it today.

What is the Convair CV-990 Coronado?

The CV-990 is a four-engine narrowbody airliner from the US manufacturer Convair of San Diego, then a division of the defense group General Dynamics. It is the direct successor of the Convair CV-880, with which Convair had entered the jet market in the late 1950s – up against the overwhelming competition from the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8.

The impetus came from American Airlines. The airline wanted an aircraft that was bigger than the 880 and noticeably faster than the competition. Convair stretched the fuselage by about three meters, replaced the turbojets with modern turbofans and reworked the wing. Internally the project initially ran as the Convair 600; in the very month of the first flight it was renamed 990. The number alluded to the targeted speed.

The first flight took place on January 24, 1961. The 990 entered scheduled service in 1962, with American Airlines and almost simultaneously with Swissair. It was also Swissair that gave the type the nickname “Coronado” when it introduced it – a name that then stuck for the whole type.

Fast, but not fast enough: the technology

The heart of the Coronado was the four General Electric CJ805-23B engines. The special thing: the fan, which in a turbofan delivers most of the thrust, sits not at the front as on today’s engines, but at the rear end of the core engine. For this, General Electric had added a fan stage at the back of the 880’s turbojet. Each engine produced about 71.4 kilonewtons of thrust. You can find more about the engine manufacturer, then and now, on the GE Aerospace page.

The second trademark is the anti-shock bodies on top of the wing, often called “Küchemann carrots” in German sources. At high speed the air over the wing accelerates strongly and can locally reach supersonic speed. The resulting shock waves increase drag massively. The cigar-shaped bodies at the trailing edge smooth the airflow so that this effect only sets in at a higher Mach number. As a side benefit, they also served as additional fuel tanks.

In May 1961 a pre-production aircraft reached a true airspeed of about 1,086 km/h in a descent at around 6,700 meters. No airliner had flown faster up to that point. The test program also showed the downside, though: the top speed first achieved, Mach 0.84, was well below the Mach 0.89 that Convair had promised American. On top of that came problems with handling and vibration. Only aerodynamic fixes produced the improved 990A, which largely made up the shortfall – in everyday service, however, the airlines flew at a cruise speed of about Mach 0.84, barely faster than the competition.

Feature	Convair 880	Convair 990A
First flight	January 27, 1959	January 24, 1961
Length	39.42 m	about 42.5 m
Wingspan	36.58 m	36.58 m
Engines	4 × CJ805-3 (turbojet)	4 × CJ805-23B (aft fan)
Anti-shock bodies	no	yes, four
Units built	65	37

A flop with consequences

Commercially, the Coronado became a disaster. Because the promised figures for payload, range and speed could not be reached without excessive fuel consumption, American Airlines reduced its order. SAS canceled its order and flew the type only through a lease from Swissair, and Varig cut back to three aircraft.

After only 37 aircraft, Convair closed the production line in 1963. Together with the 880, General Dynamics ended up with just 102 commercial jets. For the 880 alone, losses of about 185 million US dollars are cited, and some estimates are considerably higher. The overall program is regarded as one of the most loss-making airliner projects of its time. Convair subsequently withdrew from building complete airliners. From then on Boeing and Douglas split the market between them, with European manufacturers joining later.

The Coronado at Swissair

For Switzerland, the CV-990 is a piece of national history. From 1962 Swissair took delivery of eight 990A aircraft and used them mainly on medium- and long-haul routes out of Zurich, for example to the Middle East and the Far East. The aircraft carried Swiss registrations from the HB-IC. series; which cantonal names they individually carried, you can look up in registration databases. How Swiss registrations are structured is explained in the article on Swiss HB registrations.

Swissair’s history with the type also includes its darkest day: on February 21, 1970, a bomb exploded in the cargo hold of HB-ICD “Baselland” on Flight 330 from Zurich via Tel Aviv to Hong Kong shortly after takeoff. The aircraft crashed in a wooded area near Würenlingen in the canton of Aargau, and all 47 people on board were killed. No one was ever convicted of the attack.

In 1975 Swissair parted with its Coronado fleet. One aircraft stayed in Switzerland: HB-ICC, which is now on display at the Swiss Museum of Transport in Lucerne. If you plan a trip from Zurich Airport, you can combine modern spotting action with a glimpse into Swissair’s past. How the old Swissair became today’s Swiss is told on the airline pages.

A second career: Spantax, Modern Air and NASA

As early as 1967, American Airlines began handing back its 990As. For charter airlines, on the other hand, the used, fast jets were attractive, especially since they could be fitted with dense seating – up to 149 seats were possible.

Other operators included Garuda Indonesia, Peru’s Aerolíneas Peruanas, Alaska Airlines and – with a single leased aircraft in 1967 – Air France. The Berlin episode in particular makes the Coronado interesting for German spotters: if you browse old Tegel photos, you keep running into the distinctive silhouette with the wing carrots. You can read more about the airport in this period in the history of Tegel Airport.

The three features that are enough to identify it

In a museum or on old photos you often face the question: 707, DC-8, Convair 880 or 990? Three looks let you narrow down the Coronado with confidence.

As always, the final certainty comes from the registration. For museum aircraft it’s worth comparing it against the airframe’s history, because some aircraft wear a livery that doesn’t match their last operator. How registrations work is explained in the article Understanding aircraft registrations.

Coronado, Convair 880, Boeing 707 or DC-8?

The early four-engine jets look very similar at first glance. The finder helps you narrow it down.

Other classics from the same era are the British Vickers VC10 with four engines at the rear and the French Sud Aviation Caravelle with two rear engines – both can be told apart from the Coronado at first glance. The De Havilland Comet carries its engines in the wing roots. The guide Spotting vintage aircraft in the sky gives a good overview of such distinctions, and the article on the history of the Boeing 707 tells the story of the big competitor’s development.

Where you can see a CV-990 today

You won’t see a Coronado flying anymore. Only a few airframes survive, and not all of them are open to the public.

Location	Aircraft	Note
Swiss Museum of Transport, Lucerne	HB-ICC, ex Swissair	best-known surviving Coronado, on public display
Mojave Air and Space Port, California	N810NA, ex American, Modern Air and NASA	displayed as a “gate guardian”
Mojave Air and Space Port, California	N990AB, ex Aerolíneas Peruanas	in storage since 1980
Palma de Mallorca Airport	EC-BZO, ex Spantax	parked since 1987, condition unclear
Sabadell Airport near Barcelona	Forward fuselage of EC-BZP, ex Spantax	cabin crew training device

For spotters from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Lucerne is the obvious destination. Besides the Coronado, the Swiss Museum of Transport shows other historic Swissair aircraft, so you see a whole chapter of Swiss aviation at once.

You can put the rarity of such an encounter in perspective with the article Spotting rare aircraft. And if you’re interested in the colors of the past, the article on legendary airline liveries has more classics.

Photo tips for the Coronado in a museum

A museum aircraft won’t run away from you – you still need a bit of planning for good pictures.

Common mix-ups and how to rule them out

Conclusion

The Convair CV-990 Coronado was an aircraft that wanted too much: faster than all the others, built for a single big customer and in the end too expensive to operate. That is exactly why it is so fascinating today. Its anti-shock bodies make it unmistakable, and its history links Zurich, Berlin-Tegel and the Spanish vacation islands. If you want to see one, your best bet is to head to Lucerne.