THE CEDARJET PAGES 
By Wassim Chemaitelli
THE CONVAIR CV-990A IN LEBANON: 1965-1972
The Convair CV-990 made its first flight on January 24th 1961. The airliner was the successor of the CV-880, which career faced important setbacks after the introduction by Boeing of the ubiquitous B720. The CV-990 could carry around 100 passengers in a 2 class configuration, with four seats and five seats layout respectively for first class and economy class cabins. Its most important performance was speed: equiped with General Electric CJ-805-23B aft fan turbofans it reached a 0.91 mach at altitude, and thus remains one of the fastest subsonic airliners. But these performances were reached too late and Convair's jet airliner program had to be abandoned in 1963.
LIA operated 2 Convair CV990As. Right: picture from Charles Woodley's article, via Graham Simmons, Aircraft Illustrated, 3/97.
In 1965 Lebanese International Airways (LIA) introduced 2 Convair CV-990As in its fleet, entering the jet age 5 years behind its competitor MEA, which had been flying Comets since 1960. The Convair was very popular with passengers and boosted LIA's operations to Europe and the Gulf.
Much of LIA's success depended on its 2 Convair CV-990As, highlited in this advertisement in the 1968 Baalbeck Festival Book. The airline will not survive to the loss of these planes after their destruction by the Israeli Army in December 1968.
Both of LIA's Convairs were destroyed by the Israeli Army during the raid on Beirut International Airport in December 1968. But this was not the end of the career of the Convair CV-990A under Beirut's sun. MEA, which was renewing its whole fleet, two thirds of which was also destroyed by the same Israeli aggression against Lebanon, chose to lease-purchase 6 Convair CV-990s "Astrojets" from American Airlines.
An MEA Convair CV-990A seen in London in 1970. Copyright Steve Williams@Airliners.net
MEA used these airplanes between 1969 and 1971 when the airline was able to acquire enough Boeing 707s and 720s to have a homogenous fleet.
An MEA Convair CV-990A in the seventies livery, Nicosia, 10-1971. Photo: Paul Goddard @Airliners.net .
The Convair CV-990A left Beirut just in time before the end of its golden age, losing ground to the Boeing 720/707 in Lebanon like elsewhere. The airliners were returned to American Airlines and went afterwards to different operators, including the Spanish charter airline Spantax. One of the ex-MEA Convairs, cn n° 30 former OD-AFG can still be seen nowadays in an air and space museum in Palma de Mallorca.
Spantax EC-BZO, former OD-AFG, Palma de Mallorca. Photo: Mike Lee @Aviation Photo Resource