The Convair-Liner was a twin-engined, pressurized airliner built for the 40-50 passenger short haul feeder market of the post World War 2 era by San Diego based Convair General Dynamics.

Republic Convair 580 N2729R DTW DEC 1980.

The Convair Twine was popular in the US as pretty much all the US major operators of the 1950s ordered the Convair Twin, including Braniff, United, Delta, American, Western, Eastern, Frontier, Continental, and of course North Central Airlines, the subject of this article.

Although North Central only initially took delivery of a handful of Convair Twins in the early 1960s, additional machines were acquired through the 1960s and 70s, and by the time the airline became Republic Airlines in 1979, the Convair 580 fleet exceeded 20 examples. The Convair 580 was a sturdy well built machine that lent itself to the harsh winter operating conditions of the mid west. The primary stomping grounds for the Republic Convair 580 fleet were the “local service” small towns that dot the landscape between Chicago, Detroit and Minneapolis, as well as spanning further West through the Dakotas.

In 1986/87 Republic Airlines was acquired by Minneapolis based Northwest Airlines, the 24 Convair 580s of Republic were panted into varying degrees of Northwest Airlines’ scheme. Most were hybrid schemes.

The Convair 580 images presented here are from the slide collection of Henry Tenby.

I am looking to purchase 35mm Kodachrome aircraft slide collections. Please contact me: henrytenby at gmail dot com

Thank you very much for visiting this page, and enjoy!

The turboprop era for the RCAF began in 1960 with the introduction of the CC-109 Cosmopolitan. The aircraft was essentially a license conversion of the Convair Twin of the then famous Convair liner airliner series. Cartierville, Quebec based Canadair used Napier Eland turboprop engines to covert ten used Convair 440 airframes to Convair 540 standard for the RCAF and they were delivered in 1960 and 1961.

Canadian Armed Forces Canadair CC-109 Cosmopolitan 109154 at Vancouver March 1978.

In 1966, the fleet was converted to Allison 501 engines (similar engine to the Lockheed Hercules and Electra) making thei aircraft essentially Convair 580s. The aircraft served as passenger and VIP military and Government transports for 34 years with only one airframe being lost to a ground fire and two were scrapped, but they served safely and efficiently without an accident for their entire RCAF Canadian Forces career.

The Canadair CC-109 Cosmopolitan fleet was retired from the Canadian forces in 1994 and the fleet was parked at Saskatoon where it was offered for sale to the civil market. The problem with the aircraft was their military designation and standards did not translate easily to civilan re-certification in Canada, the US or Europe. This limited the marketability of the aircraft.

Saskatchewan aviation entrepreneur and businessman Albert Ethier (a close friend of the author’s) acquired the fleet of Cosmopolitans from Crown Assets and he paid the Government a fair price for the aircraft package. Sadly, the Federal Government and aviation authorities failed to provide authorities for the aircraft to be used in non military operations, which made marketing the planes to civil operates almost impossible. The Cosmopolitan fleet languished for years at Saskatoon with a few airframes also sitting in Calgary. Alber Ethier was only ever able to lease/sell a few of the aircraft to operators in Central America and Africa, and the investment provided to be a very sad chapter of the aviation entrepreneur’s otherwise highly successful career.

We hope you enjoy the Canadian Armed Forces Canadair CC-109 Cosmopolitan images taken by Dr. John Blatherwick. Thank you very much for visiting this page, and enjoy!

I am looking to purchase 35mm Kodachrome aircraft slide collections. Please contact me: henrytenby at gmail dot com