old TAA ad.jpg

What date is that ad, Peter? It must be early 1950's, as TAA's first Convair arrived in Sept 1948 and by 1954, TAA had purchased Vickers Viscounts, and the piston-engine aircraft era was soon to be relegated to history.

Despite their drawbacks (noisiness and fuel consumption and higher maintenance costs), the Convair was a superb aircraft, exceptionally reliable, and the Convair 240 had a perfect record in Australia, with no crashes recorded.

http://www.taamuseum.org.au/70Anniversary/70thTAAStory.html

The Facebook post just referred to it as an old ad, no date given.

The Convair went from TAA late 59 I believe. I  crawled over one last weekend (actually Monday) and looked carefully over a sectioned motor from one. twin row 18 cylinder with 3 power recovery Turbines. 135 HP from each cylinder.  STEEL crankcases and about 50 bolts at the base of each cylinder. Same engines fitted to the Connie which is the only one now flying in the world.  2 speed supercharged and pressurised ignition with  a coil on each cylinder for flying at altitude. The original fuel was avgas 130/145 like so many engines of the period. Now they can only get LL 100 so operate derated at lower boost figures. All a very creditable showing at HARS where the homemade food is great and the people all offer their services free. They intend to get this one in the air soon. it's not a thing I would let just anybody fly. You'd need to be well trained and current.  Exactly the same Planes as Arthur Butler operated... You can reverse  them out of a parking Bay. Nev