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This is one of two photos I have of CV990 aircraft. The other pic is a shot of a 990 dressed in Northeast Airlines clothing. That Coronado in Northeast "Yellowbird" scheme paint was being leased from American, and it was the only CV990 in the Northeast fleet. I caught it at KBOS during a BUF-ROC-SYR-ALB-BOS-ALB-SYR-ROC-BUF roundtrip one-day out-and-back flight on Mohawk when I was 17. (And PS: The flight cost $25.00 total).

hi Gary ::
thans for your comment!!
have some more old pics of tri jets out of the early 80 in Frankfurt. Scanning now from my old analog pics to upload.

greetings from Germany!!
uwe

Yak 42, tri star, tu 154, dc10

Scanned film from the '60's gets a pass as far as quality goes Gary, don't worry about it! It is SO COOL to see these aircraft, the old tugs, old cars etc. Would love to hear those old engines again!

Great photo, but how many of you out there remember the Kodak 620 film. Now that's old school

Gary,
This is a great shot! The grainy quality of this photo ads character and brings back memories of when air travel was a special experience and not just hauling cattle as it is today. Love the photo!

Hey Gary, that is a great shot of the 990, love the old AA paint scheme. If you have the NE Yellowbird I would really like to see it, I dont think many did but I really liked the way the NE looked and i dont even remember a 990.

I'd like to see the Yellowbird picture too, regardless of the quality.

I had the opportunity to be a flight engineer in a CV-880 from Miami to Piking in or about 1978

Jimbo and John ... My pic of the NE CV990 is not only badly faded, but the photo was taken thru a terminal window that had not been cleaned for a while so the overall end result is that it is REALLY a poor shot. But it IS a rather rare photo: there just aren't very many photos of that single Northeast Convair 990 Yellowbird, so I'll work on it and put it up. Incidentally, Northeast was one of only two airlines that flew both the 990 and the 880.
Mark T ... Hi, Mark. Thanks for the comment. I, too, truly enjoy seeing photos from the past, and the quality is of no concern to me when I view them. So I'll not worry too much about the quality of my old clicks when I think about posting them here. :-)
Joseph .... The 620 film was used in my Kodak Bullseye camera. But prior to my having THAT camera and using 620 film, I only had a Kodak Brownie, and it used Kodak 127 film. (Big Grin) Waaaay old school stuff. (lol)
Nwilcox ... Many Thanks to you for the comment and compliment. Your comment prompted a memory jog -- I remember when people dressed up to go on a flight: they dressed like they were going to a business meeting. No ripped jeans or pajama bottoms or shower clogs like I saw a few months ago, and DEFINITELY no profanity like the shirt I saw on the lady passenger next to me on my most recent trip: "Live like a lady, love like a wh--e." Interesting world we live in today. (Shaking head)
Juan ... I envy you. I've only got photos of those old Convairs. I never had an opportunity to fly in one of them.
Thank you to all of you for your comments. (High Fives)

I flew on a 990, ORD-BOS in the early '70s. We had a strong tail wind that and the pilot said our ground speed was just over 700 mph.

Good job my friend.

Good job Gary.

Going back if it was idelwild. I was born and raised in New Rochelle, NY. It was on the final approach to the Idelwild. Seein the planes go by on a daily basis was instrumental in getting me interested in aviation. I started out by going to a aviation tech school in Mass didn't work out was 18 didn't have my head screwed on straight. Flunked out this was during Vietnam era so I lost my status for 1A. I ended up going into USAF and was able to work on fighter jets spent 22 plus years. Got out pumped jet A for but but had my ticket. Finally got on with American Trans Air , junior mech then Senior mech for 4 yrs. Then got on with FAA for 11 yrs as Airwortiness Inspector before retiring.

Thanks for publishing this pictures of the Convair 990.
Brings back memories of my days at American Airlines at JFK in the early to mid 60's days.
Thanks again!

Quality be damned, nice pic regardless! Thanks for posting it Gary!

Great job Gary. Brings back memories when I was young, having to get "dressed up" and flying 1st. class 99% of the time (My Dad was with Western, my Mom PSA). It was funny, 7-8yrs. old getting a pack of cigarettes on my meal tray! Then I grew up and became a pilot for 25yrs.

No worries about the quality - it's a great picture

Very nice job Gary, this is such a cool historic shot.

Really nice work getting the pic to what it is, amazing! Thanks!

For a vintage photo, this one is a GREAT one.

John G., Lewis T., Huston C., Andre P., g67, Jim G., Brian J., Mark S., and bobfred3 ....
Thank you to each of you for commenting. As mentioned above, I have one other pic of a CV990, a fairly rare snap of one in Northeast Airlines livery, that I am trying to resurrect to a state of worthwhile presentation. (To the best of my knowledge, there are only two pics of the NE Coronado that are already on the web; mine and one other).
Thanks for viewing my photo here of this AA CV990 and for letting me know you enjoyed seeing this pic. Thus far, I've posted three "oldies" and I certainly did not expect that any of them would be of very much interest to a 21st-century audience of viewers that is used to digitally-processed and Photoshop-edited ultra high quality pictures. I had shared several of these old photos a few years ago on a privately-owned website that has now folded its tent, and these old pics did not get the same enthusiastic "reception" they are getting here. I am thrilled that so many FA viewers want to see these.
Best Wishes for a joyous holiday season and a happy, healthy, safe, and prosperous New Year in 2016 to each of you, to all who have commented here, and to all FA members. ;-)

Gilles L. >> Hi and Thank You for your compliment. :-)

Thanks for posting this one. I flew an American Airlines Convair 990 from Washington DC to Dallas in April 1965. That was a few months before my 13th birthday. I can't recall whether we flew into DAL or the old Greater Southwest. I think that was the only big Convair I ever flew...the rest of the old four-engine jets that I recall were 707s and DC-8s. Earlier in the week I had ridden an Eastern Shuttle Constellation from New York to Washington. Thanks for jogging my memory.

Robert >> If you want another memory jog, check back here soon. Sitting right in front of me on my office desk are five old Kodak 620 film pictures I've been preparing to work on: four quad-jets (Braniff, Eastern, TWA, and Northeast; and one Eastern propliner ... a Connie. I snapped the Connie at KBOS in the later 60s. It was a pure lucky break: on the day I saw it and shot it, I was a teenage kid. I had taken a one-day trip from Buffalo to Boston and back .... just to be on the airplane flights. I flew out of Buffalo early one morning on a Mohawk FH-227, landed at Boston, ran around taking pictures at KBOS airport for a few hours (never even thought about going into the historic city ... lol), and then flew back to Buffalo on Mohawk later in the day. The Constellation (in Eastern's "hockey stick" livery) had been substituted as a replacement a/c on the hourly New York - Washington - Boston shuttle. Like all of my other photos, this one is old and faded, but I'll be able to make it presentable. You ought to be able to get a memory jump from viewing it. (Two thumbs up)

WOW! What a classic shot! My Father used to fly a few of these.

----------beautiful history / interesting photo ---

Mathias, Dwight, and Tom ("Alien") ...
Thanx to all three of you for your comments. ;-)
Dwight, that is cool that your dad flew these. What airline did your dad fly for?
Hey, Alien, how ya been? I'm enjoying your "oldies" posts, too, so please keep them coming. (Wave and a High 5)
And Season's Greetings to all three of you. Have a super holiday and New Years, guys.

Nice pic. Was a pax on a Delta CV880 from ORD to MIA in the 60's. I remember the flight attendant explaining 'this is a small plane' and please be efficient with stowing our carry on's. Never flew a CV990 but the history of these jets and Convair is interesting as their performance never matched the airlines expectations and orders dried up. Convair nearly went bankrupt (or did) b/c of these designs although they were popular with aircrews/pax and maintenance staff. Still beautiful A/C.

Great picture!! I showed this to my boss (an old Convair AME). "Would you look at that!" he said, "If it ain't an old 'San Diego Ant Eater!" Now I've been around aviation for almost 60 years, but I'd never heard that term. Had to ask, and he smiled and said, "They were built in San Diego, and the low nose looks like an ant eater!" One learns something new every day! Thanks for sharing the photo, Gary, and I really appreciate the write up! Too many pictures are posted with no information. Cheers!

Love that classic livery, didn't know American was still flying the old 990! Great to see!

Thanks for posting

Gary , it's not always about the Q but of the subject .
You've used a good amount of time and made this a good post .
I've seen a lot of information posted relating to the Douglas DC- 8 and the Boeing 707 and quite honestly seen 0 on these Convair 990.I intend to correct that issue and do some updating the info in my head ( which is empty according to all my friends ) .I do remember hearing about the aircraft back in the early 60's and if i not wrong my brother was then dating my sister in law who was a flight attendant . He would get 2 weeks leave and fly to see her and he was a Naval Officer and Seal in Vietnam at that time .I also remember also that he never came to be with family in Virginia but instead went to North Hollywood to be with her . I think i remember he speaking of it and now will have to find out , right . You know the saying that says "Curiosity Killed the Cat" . Well i'll meow in a minute .
And also Gary Schenauer , thank you for the posting and the photo also . When i saw it the 1st thing i thought was Wow , look how small that airplane is and thought for a minute was that the business jet that had the 4 engines and had been designed and built for long haul over the oceans. Back in it's era it was a fairly large airliners i suppose but it sure has small looks
Anyway ,
Thank you again and hope to see the other photo you have . Rick

Hi, Rick H. ... Hey, just read your Comment. I truly enjoy when folks like you and John B. and Bror M. find one of my old (ie: "ancient") pics which jogs their memories. Even tho the pics are over a half-century old, folks see them and reminisce and some of my FA friends and myself are really pleased to read their remembrances. Thank You (to you, John B., Bror M., N9341C, and N612BZ) to all of you for the kind compliments about that old pic and even more, Thanks for all your very interesting Comments. And as for the Northeast CV990 "Yellowbird" pic, I had posted it, but then one day I received a notice from one of the FA screeners that he had deleted it because it looked a little bit "fuzzy" to him. I was perplexed for two reasons: 1) because I had worked on it to "revive" it and it came out better than this one, and 2) because it had been viewed over 250 times in just four days and had received 9 votes with an average vote score above 3.8. But I figured what the heck -- it was the only picture of a Convair 990 with Northeast livery in the FA gallery and one of just four photos of it anywhere on the web but if their expert screeners didn't want it; then so be it. I had also posted an extremely rare photo of a particular Braniff International fleetbird and the screener didn't like that one either so I had him delete it. So today there are only two pics of that specific Braniff on the web ... and FA could have had the third one but the screener wanted 'perfection' and those 51 year old resurrected prints weren't perfect. Hmmm. Makes me wonder if that screener will delete this one too. After all, FA screeners are very choosey; they only permit the very best photos. Rick, Thank You again for Commenting and I'm glad you liked the pic. I am willing to share the Northeast CV990 and also the BI Douglas DC-8 but since FA won't allow them to be in their gallery because they are not up to FA's high standards, I'd have to email them. My addy (for you or anyone else who would wish to have those two a/c) is OldeCarl@gmail.com Don't reply here, just email me and put a title such as "BRANIFF PHOTO" or "NORTHEAST PHOTO" and I'll send it. (Thumbs Up)

I had a flight from ORD to BOS on an American CV990. We had a tail wind that day and exceeded 700 mph.