American Airlines Convair 990

N5601, October, 1965, William T. Larkins via Ed Coates Collection, Notes: Intrigued by claims that the Convair 880 had a noticeably higher cruising speed than the Boeing 707, American went ahead in August 1958 and placed an order for a number of them, planning to use them in an all first class configuration.  American's model was designated the 990 (the type as delivered to Swissair, was also known as the Coronado, although AAL did not adopt that name). In the event, the Convair was plagued by teething problems and did not actually enter American service until 18 March 1962 when they were used on the New York - Chicago route.  The 990 was a nice airliner as far as passengers were concerned although overall sales were lacking.  The narrow bodied fuselage and limited  capacity attributes outweighed the slight increase obtained in cruising speed   Most of American's fleet of 20 were sold to Spanish carrier Spantax by the end of the 1960s. Below is a rare shot by William T. Larkins of a CVAC 990 in service. This aircraft, N5601 was actually given the same registration as the prototype, although the aircraft shown below at San Francisco in October of 1965 is another, later one.  It was not delivered until January of 1963, the original N5601 having been re-regi