Sud Aviation Super-Caravelle

Sud Aviation Super-Caravelle

The Super-Caravelle was a design for a supersonic transport from Sud Aviation in France. Unlike most competing designs which envisioned larger trans-atlantic aircraft and led to the likes of the Boeing 2707, the Super-Caravelle was a much smaller, shorter range design intended to replace their earlier and very successful Caravelle. Design work started in 1960 and was announced in 1961 at the Paris Air Show, but was later merged with similar work at the British Aircraft Corporation (originally the Bristol 223) to create the Concorde project in November 1962. After starting the Concorde, the Super Caravelle name was instead used on a lengthed version of the original Caravelle design, the SE-210B.

The Super-Caravelle looks very much like a smaller, two-engine version of the Concorde. It used the Concorde's unique ogive wing planform, and was otherwise similar in shape and layout with the exception of the nose area which was more "conventional" and only the outermost section over the radar "drooped" for visibility on takeoff and landing. In normal use it was designed to carry 70 passengers between 1500-1800 miles at about Mach 2. The size and range requirements were set to make the Super-Caravelle be "perfect" for Air France's European and African routes.

The Concorde was originally to be delivered in two versions, a longer-range transatlantic version similar to the Bristol 223 that was eventually delivered as the Concorde, and a smaller version for shorter range routes similar to the Super-Caravelle. After consulations with prospective customers, the smaller design was dropped.