The Aerospatiale SN601 Corvette

As one of the initially generation of regional jets that flew some two a long time before those produced by Canadair, Embraer, and Dornier in the 1990s, the Aerospatiale SN.601 Corvette straddled the line between the organization and regional markets and was for that reason the smallest to have served commercially.

Its seed was planted when the French govt, continuing its strategy of re-creating the country’s write-up-war aviation business begun with piston airliners this kind of as the Breguet Deux Ponts, the Sud-Est Armagnac, and the Sud-Ouest Bretagne, asked for that aircraft manufacturers post proposals for a compact twin-turbofan liaison/trainer. Then-separate Sud-Aviation and Nord-Aviation elected to jointly develop an executive jet designated the SN.600 Diplomate in January of 1968 when French indigenous SNECMA intended a suited powerplant for it, the M49 Larzac.

Shown for the very first time in model type at that year’s Hanover Air Demonstrate, it featured what turned the typical business jet configuration-a low wing, a slim fuselage, a forward, remaining door, swept aerodynamic surfaces, and two aft-mounted turbofans. It most intently resembled the Cessna Quotation 500. It also had really early and really smaller-ability regional jet application.

Predicted sales, which laterproved unrealistically inflated, have been expected to range some 400 from worldwide operators over and higher than the preliminary 60 expected from the French armed forces.

Reflecting its joint Sud- and Nord-Aviation firm origins, the aircraft, with its “SN” designation, to start with took to the sky in prototype sort on July 16, 1970, but the prolonged enhancement of its supposed M49 powerplant necessitated the use of two 2,200 thrust-pound Pratt and Whitney Canada JT15D-1s alternatively. Although its maiden flight was thriving, its exam system did not keep on in this vein. In the course of stall trials 8 months afterwards, on March 22, it crashed, ending in its demise.

A protracted period of redesign, in advance of which Sud- and Nord-Aviation merged to kind Aerospatiale, resulted in a 5.5-foot for a longer period fuselage, providing the now-redesignated SN.601 Corvette 100 a 45.4-foot all round size a 42-foot wingspan, to which idea gasoline tanks could be optionally mounted to improve assortment two 2,300 thrust-pound JT15D-4 turbofans and a 13,450-pound gross bodyweight. Selection, with its maximum payload, was just around 1,000 miles.

So-configured, the next and third prototypes respectively flew on December 20, 1972 and March 7, 1973. The very first manufacturing case in point adopted suit 8 months later, on November 9, and French certification was obtained another six months right after that, on May possibly 28, 1974.

The type’s problem plagued program was barely helped by competition, specially on its government aspect. The in the same way configured, French-made Falcon 20, distributed by way of Pan American Falcon Jets, loved a model title recognition advantage and was equipped to penetrate the coveted US sector.

Attempts to conclude related agreements were being unsuccessful, exclusively with Ling-Temco-Vought (LTV), Piper Aircraft, and its have Atlanta-based mostly US Corvette Integrated North American aircraft completion, gross sales, and distribution center. Despite the fact that its remaining a person, with Oklahoma-dependent Air Heart, Inc., seemed additional promising, it by no means acquired a single generation-normal plane out of the intended seventy.

As the 3rd most expensive business enterprise jet immediately after the Cessna Citation 500 and the Learjet 24, it was subjected to price tag overruns and the French federal government gave severe imagined to cancelling the application.

After receiving only 24 orders, Aerospatiale did just that. A report manufactured by the government’s Court of Audit mentioned that the firm’s administration lacked suitable comprehending of the hazards included in the encounter of level of competition from similar US, British, and other French layouts, indicating, “It is specific that the Corvette method is, and will continue being, a main commercial and monetary catastrophe.”

In its regional jet position, it identified limited application by 3rd-stage carriers searching for to provide point-to-issue, hub-bypassing service on routes as well slender to assistance greater plane.

Air Alpes, for instance, which took shipping and delivery of two Corvette 100s in 1974 and a different two in 1975, operated routes on its personal behalf from Paris and these, this sort of as Lyons-Brussels, on Air France’s, its aircraft showing up in its livery on a single side and its personal on its other. Accommodating a dozen passengers, they showcased two rows of one seats up coming to the 5 oval windows on both side, divided by a central aisle. The cockpit rely was two, but there had been no flight attendants in the cabin.

Other operators incorporated Air Alsace, Air Champagne, and TAT Touraine Air Transportation in France, and Sterling Airways in Denmark. Airbus Industrie applied five plane as company shuttles concerning 1981 and 2009.

While an 18-passenger, Corvette 200, with a 6.7-foot fuselage stretch, was proposed, it never ever proceeded beyond the notion phase, considering that its authentic 100 series ceased production in 1977 immediately after 40 aircraft had been developed, ending France’s 2nd worst business airliner application immediately after that of the 150-passenger Dassault-Breguet Mercure 100, whose production run was only 12, including two prototypes.

Plagued by prototype accident a prolonged, corrective enhancement period a transform in powerplant style high-priced procedure failure to set up a North American distribution location powerful competitiveness administration ignorance and ability that proved insufficient, the Aerospatiale SN.601 Corvette nevertheless served as an illustration of a person of the 3 regional jet origins: an all-new structure, the conversion of an existing turboprop one, or the use of a business jet platform.