Aérospatiale Corvette

SN 601 Corvette
Aérospatiale Corvette
Role Business jet
Manufacturer Aérospatiale
First flight 16 July 1970
Produced 1974 - 1977
Number built 40


The Aérospatiale SN 601 Corvette is a French business jet of the early 1970s, Aérospatiale's only venture into that market. Sales were disappointing, and only 40 prototype and production Corvettes were built.[1]

Design and development

Design work began in the second half of the 1960s as a joint venture between Sud Aviation and Nord Aviation. In January 1968 Sud and Nord decided to proceed with the programme after SNECMA announced it was developing a suitable engine, the M49 Larzac.[2] The SN 600 was first shown to the public as a scale model, on display described as the SN 600 Diplomate at the 1968 Hanover ILA Air Show.[3] It was a conventional design for its class, a low-wing monoplane with turbofan engines mounted in rear fuselage nacelles. The prototype SN 600 first flew on 16 July 1970 with two Pratt & Whitney Canada JT15Ds installed; the Larzac was never fitted to the aircraft as it was still in development over a year[4] after the SN 600 crashed on 23 March 1971.[1]

The first of two prototype[5] SN 601s (by this time called Corvette 100), with a fuselage 3 ft 5½ in (1.05 m) longer than the SN 600's 41 ft 11½ in[6] (12.79 m), flew for the first time on 20 December 1972.[1] In late 1976 Aérospatiale decided to cease production after the company had only received orders for 27 aircraft in the two-and-a-half years following the type's certification (it had hoped to sell six per month).[1][7] Aérospatiale studied a version with a further fuselage stretch to accommodate 18 seats, to be called the Corvette 200, but SN 601 production ended before any had been built.[1]

Operational history

SN601 Corvette of Sterling Airways at Brussels Airport in 1985

A number of Corvettes sold were used by French regional airlines Air Alsace, Air Alpes, Air Champagne and TAT.[8][9] Sterling Airways of Denmark also operated the type. One Corvette was used as a VIP transport by the Congolese Air Force.[10] As of January 2009 a small number of Corvettes are still active in Europe and Africa, including one (F-GPLA cn 28) in France fitted out for aerial photography.[11][12] This Corvette was used in the TGV high speed test as a chase vehicle/aircraft.

Airbus Industrie used a fleet of five Corvettes for internal transportation from 1981 to 2009.[13]

Variants

SN 600
The first Corvette prototype, powered by two 2,200 lbf (9.8 kN) thrust Pratt & Whitney Canada JT15D-1 turbofan engines.
SN 601
Production version with longer fuselage than SN 600 and 2,500 lb (11.1 kN) thrust JT15D-4 engines.[14] 39 built, including two prototypes.[1]

Operators

Aerospatiale SN-601 Corvette

 Benin
 Republic of the Congo
 Denmark
 Spain
 France
 Mali
 United States
 Netherlands
 Libya
 Gabon
 Madagascar
 Sweden

Accidents

Including the prototype SN 600, a total of eight Corvettes are recorded as having been written-off in crashes.[16] The worst loss of life in a Corvette crash was on 3 September 1979, when an SN 601 of Sterling Airways crashed in the Mediterranean Sea off Nice following a double engine failure. All ten occupants were killed.[17]

On March 19, 1998 a Corvette crashed in Portland, Oregon after the pilots decided to take off with only the portside engine running, while the starboard one was inoperational due to a damaged engine starter. Nobody was injured, while the aircraft suffered damage after only a short flight.[18]

Specifications (SN 601)

Data from Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1976-77 [19]

General characteristics

Performance

See also

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration and era
Related lists

References

Notes
  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Airliners.net Corvette data page retrieved on 17 January 2009.
  2. ↑ Flight International magazine, 2 May 1968, p.655.
  3. ↑ Flight International magazine, 2 May 1968, p.675.
  4. ↑ "Larzac builds up hours", Flight International magazine, 1 June 1972, p.797.
  5. ↑ Flight International magazine, 28 March 1974, p.405.
  6. ↑ SN 600 Specifications, "Private and Executive Aircraft 1971", Flight International magazine, 2 September 1971, p.360.
  7. ↑ Flight International magazine, 27 November 1976, p.1583.
  8. ↑ "Feederliner Aircraft", Flight International magazine, 27 March 1975, p.532.
  9. ↑ Aérospatiale Corvette print advertisement retrieved on 17 January 2009.
  10. ↑ "Force Aerienne Congolaise - World's Air Forces 1998", Flight International magazine, 3 December 1988 p.55.
  11. ↑ LAASdata.com list of registered SN-601s retrieved on 20 January 2009. Searches of the Airliners.net photo database show that some of the airframes listed are non-airworthy.
  12. ↑ Aerovision web site aerial photography page retrieved on 20 June 2010.
  13. ↑ Aerolia Press Release (in French) retrieved on 20 June 2010.
  14. ↑ FAA Type Certificate Number A37EU retrieved on 19 January 2009.
  15. ↑ Hatch Air Pictorial July 1984, p. 247.
  16. ↑ Aviation-Safety.net list of Corvette crashes retrieved on 20 January 2009.
  17. ↑ Aviation-Safety.net OY-SBS accident description page retrieved on 20 January 2009.
  18. ↑ retrieved on May 8, 2009
  19. ↑ Taylor 1976, p.38.
Bibliography
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