OTL Lockheed got into the aluminum airliner business during the 1930s, with their L-10 Electra.
After WW2, Lockheed's Constellation was "the best three-engine airplane flying the North Atlantic Route." ... er ... Lockheed took a while to work all the bugs out of last generation of incredibly complex turbo-compound piston engines. This line of 2 and 4 propeller-liner tradition continued up to the 4-turboprop Electra (military P-3 Orion long-range patrol plane) of the 1960s. Lockheed only made one foray into the jet airliner business with their tri-jet L-1011 Tri-Star. The L-1011 suffered from two problems, small wings and the fact that tri-jets were a short-term phenomenon. Small wings were a design error early in the "sizing" process. Small wings improved cruise performance on one route, but limited future growth/stretches, etc. Once tri-jets proved "X" million hours of trouble-free, long-range operations, they set the stage for Extended Twin Engine Operations across oceans.
During the same ear, airlines pressed manufacturers to automate more and more flight operations so that they could reduce the numbers of highly-paid, unionized aircrew. Navigators were replaced by Global Positioning Systems and flight engineers were replaced by Full Authority Digital Engine Controls. Modern auto-pilots and flight management systems are so sophisticated that pilots are just back-ups to electronic systems. Pilots no longer have to touch stick-and-rudder during normal operations. Airlines continue to lobby for "remote co-pilots."
After the L-1011, Lockheed returned to more lucrative military contracts. During massive defense cutbacks in the wake of the collapse of the Iron Curtain, Lockheed was forced to merge with (defense contractor) Martin. Martin built a variety of twin-engine commuter planes during the 1950s.
AVRO Canada's pioneering Jetliner was doomed by unrealistic expectations by its sole customer: Trans-Canada Airlines. None of the early jet engines could have provided the fuel economy demanded by TCA. AVRO Canada's Arrow jet fighter was doomed by similarly unrealistic expectations from its sole customer: the royal Canadian Air Force.
Bombardier/Canadair got its start in the airliner business license-building foreign designs for the RCAF: DC-4s, North Stars, Bristol Britannias, Cosmopolitans, etc. Eventually, Canadair teamed with Bill Lear to build a larger business jet, which evolved into the top-tier Canadair Challenger and stretched versions which evolved into commuter airliners.
Bombardier also bought out deHavilland of Canada, but by then DHC was only building Dash-8 turbo-prop commuter liners.
Embraer of Brazil got its start with the Bandierante twin-turboprop, which filled a market niche between DHC's Twin Otter and Beechcraft's 99 (stretched King Air turboprop). Embraer eventually developed several lines of business jets and stretched them into commuter liners.
After WW2, Lockheed's Constellation was "the best three-engine airplane flying the North Atlantic Route." ... er ... Lockheed took a while to work all the bugs out of last generation of incredibly complex turbo-compound piston engines. This line of 2 and 4 propeller-liner tradition continued up to the 4-turboprop Electra (military P-3 Orion long-range patrol plane) of the 1960s. Lockheed only made one foray into the jet airliner business with their tri-jet L-1011 Tri-Star. The L-1011 suffered from two problems, small wings and the fact that tri-jets were a short-term phenomenon. Small wings were a design error early in the "sizing" process. Small wings improved cruise performance on one route, but limited future growth/stretches, etc. Once tri-jets proved "X" million hours of trouble-free, long-range operations, they set the stage for Extended Twin Engine Operations across oceans.
During the same ear, airlines pressed manufacturers to automate more and more flight operations so that they could reduce the numbers of highly-paid, unionized aircrew. Navigators were replaced by Global Positioning Systems and flight engineers were replaced by Full Authority Digital Engine Controls. Modern auto-pilots and flight management systems are so sophisticated that pilots are just back-ups to electronic systems. Pilots no longer have to touch stick-and-rudder during normal operations. Airlines continue to lobby for "remote co-pilots."
After the L-1011, Lockheed returned to more lucrative military contracts. During massive defense cutbacks in the wake of the collapse of the Iron Curtain, Lockheed was forced to merge with (defense contractor) Martin. Martin built a variety of twin-engine commuter planes during the 1950s.
AVRO Canada's pioneering Jetliner was doomed by unrealistic expectations by its sole customer: Trans-Canada Airlines. None of the early jet engines could have provided the fuel economy demanded by TCA. AVRO Canada's Arrow jet fighter was doomed by similarly unrealistic expectations from its sole customer: the royal Canadian Air Force.
Bombardier/Canadair got its start in the airliner business license-building foreign designs for the RCAF: DC-4s, North Stars, Bristol Britannias, Cosmopolitans, etc. Eventually, Canadair teamed with Bill Lear to build a larger business jet, which evolved into the top-tier Canadair Challenger and stretched versions which evolved into commuter airliners.
Bombardier also bought out deHavilland of Canada, but by then DHC was only building Dash-8 turbo-prop commuter liners.
Embraer of Brazil got its start with the Bandierante twin-turboprop, which filled a market niche between DHC's Twin Otter and Beechcraft's 99 (stretched King Air turboprop). Embraer eventually developed several lines of business jets and stretched them into commuter liners.