The Sud Aviation Super-Caravelle was an early design for a supersonic transport. Unlike most competing designs which envisioned larger trans-Atlantic aircraft and led to the likes of the Boeing 2707, the Super-Caravelle was a much smaller, shorter range design intended to replace

Sud Aviation Sud Aviation (, ''Southern Aviation'') was a French state-owned aircraft manufacturer, originating from the merger of Sud-Est ( SNCASE, or ''Société nationale des constructions aéronautiques du sud-est'') and Sud-Ouest ( SNCASO or ''Société ...

's earlier and successful Caravelle. Design work started in 1960 and was announced in 1961 at the

Paris Air Show The Paris Air Show (french: Salon international de l'aéronautique et de l'espace de Paris-Le Bourget, Salon du Bourget) is a trade fair and air show held in odd years at Paris–Le Bourget Airport in north Paris, France. Organized by the Frenc ...

, but was later merged with similar work at the

British Aircraft Corporation The British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) was a British aircraft manufacturer formed from the government-pressured merger of English Electric Aviation Ltd., Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft), the Bristol Aeroplane Company and Hunting Aircraft in 19 ...

(originally the Bristol 223) to create the

Concorde The Aérospatiale/BAC Concorde () is a retired Franco-British supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation (later Aérospatiale) and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Studies started in 1954, and France an ...

project in November 1962. After work had begun on designing Concorde, the Super Caravelle name was instead used on a lengthened version of the original Caravelle design, the SE-210B.

Design

The Super-Caravelle looks very much like a smaller version of Concorde. It used Concorde's unique ogive wing planform, and was otherwise similar in shape and layout with the exception of the nose area, which was more conventional and only the outermost section over the

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, Marine radar, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor v ...

"drooped" for visibility on takeoff and landing. In normal use it was designed to carry 70 passengers between at about Mach 2. The size and range requirements were set to make the Super-Caravelle "perfect" for

Air France Air France (; formally ''Société Air France, S.A.''), stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. It is a subsidiary of the Air France–KLM Group and a founding member of the SkyTeam global a ...

's European and African routes. Concorde was originally to be delivered in two versions, a longer-range transatlantic version similar to the Bristol 223 that was eventually delivered as Concorde, and a smaller version for shorter range routes similar to the Super-Caravelle. After consultations with prospective customers, the smaller design was dropped.

Design

Specifications

See also

Further reading