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: (more…)

Filed under: Trivia by ajax
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