A lot of airliner firsts happened in the 1950s when it comes to jet travel.  First came the Dehaviland Comet, then the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8.  The Russians had the Tu-104 which kind of resembled the Comet but which was really derived from a bomber aircraft.  Avro Canada even produced a airliner, the C-102 Jetliner which got killed in favor of a fighter development by Avro.  The airliner that often goes completely unnoticed in that crowd is the Convair 880. 

Question:  Why was the Convair jetliner named the 880?

Answer after the fold:

The Convair 880 was so named because its maximum planne cruise speed was to be 880 feet per second or about 615mph.  The 880 was the fastest of the jetliners but it was also one of the most troubled jetliners as well.

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