Canadair CL-44 / CC-106 - Yukon
The CL-44 might be seen as an upgraded Bristol Britannia 300. The Canadair CL-44 is a four-engine military transport aircraft and civil cargo freighter aircraft produced by the Canadian manufacturer Canadair. The CL-44 was a development of the Bristol 175 Britannia airliner. The CL-44 in Canadian military service were designated CC-106 Yukon. The CL-44D4 variant was equipped with a hinged tail for easier loading.
The Canadair Argus is a development of the Bristol 175 Britannia airliner. The history of Canadair CL-44 began in 1952, when the Canadian Air Force began to search for a new maritime patrol and anti-submarine aircraft to replace the Avro Lancaster. As a result, in 1954, a licensing agreement was concluded between Canadair and Bristol Aeroplane Company on the development and production in Canada of a modified version of the Bristol 175 Britannia four-engine airliner. With Canadair effectively delivering the Argus, it was a generally straightforward matter to offer a Britannia based configuration to meet a RCAF necessity for a vehicle to supplant the maturing DC-4m Northstar.
Canadair CL-44 / CC-106 - Yukon
In addition, there was work on a transport version with a long flight range, which received the designation CL-44. In the spring of 1957, Canadair received a contract for the construction of eight CL-44 for the Canadian Air Force, and one prototype of a cargo variant with a loading door in the tail section was additionally contracted.
The CL-44 received the wing, tail unit and a chassis from the Britannia, although the design received local reinforcement because of the larger maximum take-off weight of the new aircraft. The fuselage of the Britannia 253 was extended by 3.76 meters, and it remained presurerized. Canadair offered three variants of powerplant for CL-44: Bristol 25 Orion, Pratt & Whitney T34 and Rolls-Royce Tyne. The Canadian Air Force chose the option with Orion. But in 1958, after the release of this engine at Bristol Siddeley, on the first production aircraft, CL-44-6 (the Canadian military designation SS-106 Yukon ), the Tyne II engines with a capacity of 5500 hp were installed.
The plane had two sliding cargo doors on the left board in front and behind the wing and could take on board 27,525 kg of cargo. The prototype made the first flight on 15 November 1959 under the control of test pilots W. S. Longhurst and McClean. In the early 1960s, the Canadian Air Force received 12 CL-44-6 / CC-106 aircraft, nine of them were fully loaded and entered the 437th squadron, and the rest were used by the 412th squadron as passenger aircraft.
The Canadian Air Force had written off its Yukons since 1973, all were purchased by carrier airlines, mostly from Latin America.
CL-44D4
Canadair came to the conclusion that the onboard cargo sliding door - not the best option for fast loading (unloading). As a result, it was decided to apply the unloading option through the tail section of the fuselage that was sideways to the side - this made it possible to load / unload any, even oversized cargo without problems, and also to load the cargo directly from trucks without the use of cranes.
The CL-44D4 variant, also known as the Canadair Forty-Four and outwardly similar to the CL-44-6 (excluding the rear sliding cargo door and the Rolls-Royce R.Ty.12 Tyne 515/10 engines), received from Canadair a rotary tail section equipped with a hydraulic drive, which turned to the right. The full opening required only 90 seconds, normal operation was allowed with a side wind of up to 13.3 m / s, and in the open position, the tail section could remain even with gusts of wind up to 26.6 m / s. In the closed position it was automatically fixed by eight locks.
The main cargo cabin of the aircraft had a length of 30 m, a width of 3.35 m, a height of 2.05 m and a volume of 178.6 m3. Under it was an additional cabin with a volume of 28.3 m3. The total weight of the transported cargo reached 28725 kg. The CL-44D4 had a standard crew of 3-4 people. At the disposal of the pilots were the VOR system (analogue of the domestic RSBN), radio compass, radio altimeter and glide path indicator. Control of the rotary tail part was carried out by the operator from the console located in the rear of the machine directly at the junction.
The first CL-44D4 (CF-MKP-X), took off on November 16, 1960, and seven months later received a certificate from the US Federal Aviation Administration. Canadair received orders for 17 cars at first, then the order book grew to 23 cars from three American carriers: Flying Tiger Line, Seaboard World and Slick Airways. The first delivery was carried out on May 31, 1961 of the company Flying Tiger. At that time, these companies were the largest in the world, engaged in cargo air transportation, so that they were able to quickly evaluate all the advantages of the new aircraft - speed, payload, simplicity and economy of operation. The superiority of the Douglas DC-6 and Lockheed Constellation was obvious.
The Flying Tiger Line ordered 12 aircraft and Seaboard World Airlines ordered 7 aircraft. Many other Airlines showed interest in the D4. Pakistan ordered five aircraft, but the Canadian government refused to issue an export permit for Pakistan for fear of offending India. Saudi Arabia withdrew their two aircraft after Pakistan was out of the game. Japan Cargo Airlines ordered three Aircraft but cancelled after Japan airlines opposed the purchase. BOAC appeared to be a certain client until their management changed and stopped the discussion. (BOAC Cargo later leased a D4 from Seaboard while waiting for their new Boeing 707).
In 1960 the USAF Military Air Transport Service (MATS) was thinking of buying up to 232 D4’s. The United States wanted Canada to bolster its northern fighter defences and proposed a deal whereby the Canadian would buy 100 F-101 Voodoo fighters plus a possible participation in the maintenance of the Pinetree early warning radar line. The quantity of D4’s had dwindled to 37 when Ontario conservatives objected on the grounds that it would be politically unacceptable to award a major aircraft contract to Quebec after having cancelled the Ontario-built Avro Arrow. MATS quickly changed their minds and bought Boeing C-135.
CL-44D4-8
Canadair also developed a version of a military transport aircraft with tail loading - it received the designation CL-44G and was intended for the Canadian Defense Ministry, but no orders were received. Another customer for the aircraft was the Icelandic company Loftleidir, which placed an order for four aircraft in the version of the passenger airliner CL-44D4-8 with a capacity of 160-178 passengers, which it was planned to use on transatlantic routes. The aircraft retained the possibility of using the rotating tail part, but the hydraulic system was dismantled.
CL-44J
The latest development of Canadair was the version of CL-44J, created under the requirements of Loftleidir on the airliner of larger capacity. Canadair completed the conversion of the fourth CL-44D4-8 aircraft ordered by Loftleidir and the last of the 39 CL-44 aircraft built by the company into an airliner of increased capacity - by extending the fuselage by 4.6 m it was possible to increase the passenger compartment capacity to 214 armchairs. The first flight was made on March 17, 1965 in the standard CL-44D4-8, and the modified version, CF-SEE-X (prototype CL-44J), made the first flight on November 8, 1965. Three other CL-44D4-8 aircrafts from Loftleidir were also converted to the CL-44J standard, but the developer's plans to launch the extended version of the car under the designation Canadair 400 were not implemented.
CL-44-O Skymonster
Another version of CL-44 was a hybrid, obtained from the aircraft CL-44D4, which belonged to the company Flying Tiger Line earlier. The company Conroy Aircraft Company carried out its conversion to a cargo airplane for transportation of bulky goods. The owner of this company, Jack Conroy, is known for his projects of re-equipment of the serial cars of such models as the Boeing 377 Stratocruiser and the KS-97 Stratofreighter in the airplanes for transportation of bulky goods (the converted cars received the designations Guppy, Pregnant Guppy, Mini Guppy and Super Guppy).
Conroy's conversion of the Canadair CL44 design resulted in an aircraft with a dramatically increased fuselage diameter. The CL-44D wings remained almost unchanged, but immediately behind the pilot's cockpit the upper part of the fuselage was completely dismantled and replaced with a convex structure, so that the cargo cabin was able to transport large-sized cargo. The aircraft received the designation CL-44-O, the first flight he made in 1969 under the control of the famous test pilot of Lockheed, Herman Salmon. The plane was carrying Rolls-Royce RB.211 engines and nacelles from the UK to California as part of the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar program.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
