With the post-war airlines of France dependent upon US aircraft, the French government was anxious to not only restore the country's aviation industry, but to also enter the race to build jet aircraft. While developments in the US market showed intentions to use jet aircraft for long-distance routes both over the Atlantic and on transcontinental trunk routes, European airlines planned for the introduction of jet aircraft on the shorter routes between major European centers. With the British working on the Vickers Viscount to complement the De Haviland Comet on European routes (the Viscount specifications stemming from the post-war Brabazon planning committee's recommendations for a short-haul turbine airliner to serve European routes), France decided in 1951 to place its bets on a pure jet for short-haul routes given that the manufacturers of the time lacked significant capital and resources to develop a long-haul aircraft to rival the Comet and the 707.
A year later design finalists were selected for the new jetliner and of the three entrants, in what was an unorthodox design of the time, a twin rear-engined design from Sud-Est (which would later merge with Sud-Ouest to form Sud-Aviation which in 1970 would form the nucleus of Aerospatiale) designated the SE-210 won the competition and would be christened the "Caravelle". The first prototype would fly in 1955 and set an aesthetic design standard that few aircraft today meet with graceful lines and distinctive triangular windows. Her rear twin-engined layout at the time was revolutionary as it made for a quiet cabin and a clean, efficient, and unobstructed wing. But her design was classically French and certainly ranks as one of the most aesthetically pleasing commercial jetliners ever built.
Given that the Caravelles accommodated the same number of passengers as the larger regional jets of today, I figured why not create a regional jet that builds upon the Caravelle's graceful design ethic. I had first done this back around 2004 and decided to redo the illustrations to print standards using Illustrator CS2 (what I had done back then was to use Paint Shop Pro 7.0 and it wasn't up to print quality) This is what I call the "Caravelle 2000" which would be an all-new regional jet design that retains the spirit of the original Caravelle in its appearance and design.
Since Air France was the launch customer of the original Caravelle (Air France put their original Caravelles in service on the Paris-Istanbul route in May 1959), they'd of course be a launch customer for the Caravelle 2000. Here she is in the colors of Air France's regional partner, Brit Air. I would envision the Caravelle 2000 as an all-new RJ coming from a joint-venture between Aerospatiale (the Caravelle's original builder) and Dassault- since Dassault has had extensive experience with small jets in their Falcon business jet product line, it makes sense to me to have them onboard in the design of the Caravelle 2000.
I retained the distinctive triangular windows of the original Caravelle as well as a sleek nose that resembles the Comet nose used on the original Caravelle- cabin width would be something on par with the Embraer ERJ-170 family. I kept the cruciform tail layout with a dorsal fin extension hearkening back to the extended dorsal spine on the original Caravelle.
Here she is in the colors of SAS' regional partner, Scandanavian Commuter. The world's first Caravelle service was flown by SAS in April 1959, so of course we'd have to have SAS flying the Caravelle 2000 as well. The wing layout would be the usual swept-back slender wings that we see these days on RJ-class aircraft- maybe supercritical or whatever would be most efficient for the flight profiles typical for RJs. Instead of a winglet or a raked wingtip (rakelet), I went with the canted winglets similar to what would have been offered on the Envoy 7, the business jet version of the aborted Fairchild Dornier 728JET. On the Envoy 7 they were referred to as "shark winglets".
To make the original Caravelle more appealing, Sud-Aviation rolled out the Caravelle III which would be the first major variant of the design. She featured uprated Avon engines which allowed increased performance and capacity. Alitalia would be the first to put the Caravelle III in service in 1960 and many of the original Caravelles would be retrofitted to the upgraded standard. So given that, here's the Caravelle 2000 in the colors of Alitalia Express. I've always found Alitalia's livery a simple yet classic look with respect to the tail design- let's hope Alitalia doesn't follow the current trend to blandness! Alitalia named its original Caravelles for stars in the sky. So this one has the name "Procyon" just under the cheatline on the nose.
And finally, here's the Caravelle 2000 in the colors of Iberia's regional partner, Air Nostrum. Iberia was also one of the customers of the original Caravelle and their current colors are also a sharp look on this aircraft. This one is actually my favorite of this group.
A note on the designation "2000-10". This was something Dassault did with their Mirage 2000 series fighters- the upgraded series of jets designated "2000-5". So for the Caravelle 2000, the -10 is the baseline series, with stretched versions being the -20, -30, etc. Stay tuned for those illustrations.
Enjoy!
