Caption Contest #53 - The Love Child Is The Winner!
Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 09:29AM 
So if you didn't know, this odd looking, kinda Guppy, sorta 747, almost a DC-6 machine is for real... it's called a Carvair. Congrats go out to 'TenDegreesFlap' for submitting the most popular caption as seen above. This winning effort will be rewarded with a bacon sandwhich at Oshkosh 2011 - mmm!
The Carvair was originally conceived in the 1950's by the late Freddie Laker as a way to haul more automobiles (along with some pax) on short hauls around the UK. The Bristol 170 Freighter had been the mainstay of this work, but its ability to haul only 3 cars greatly limited profitability. The Carvair (Car-via-air) was based on the Douglas DC-4 and created the ability to carry up to 5 cars, which were loaded thru the small swing-open nose. With the cockpit relocated above the loading area, a fairly simple overall arrangement was achieved. Just 21 of these unpressurized freighters were built, but several operated for many, many years, some until relatively recently.
The Carvair was a really unique adaptation of an existing aircraft that preceded the 'Guppy' concept to first flight by over a year. It also might have been just a touch of inspiration for the designers at Boeing when the 747 'hump' was conceived. The Carvair is certainly an interesting footnote in the history of aviation. The video below shows the same aircraft as in the caption (with the lips painted on) apparently performing at an airshow at some point in the recent past. This aircraft may still be airworthy today in South Africa, tho I can't confirm that. If it is still flying, it would be the only Carvair still airworthy.
The Carvair isn't very pretty in the air, but the sound from four Pratt & Whitney R-2000's is sure awesome!
Reader Comments (1)
Yey!