VeneAvia - VA-1000-10
The VeneAvia VA-1000 is a long-range Venezuelan airliner designed and built by VeneAvia, and first flown at Maracaibo, in 1959. The airliner was designed to operate on long-distance routes from the shorter runways of the era, and demanded excellent hot and high performance for operations from high altitude airports in South America.
Launched six months after the AC7 the designers at VeneAvia knew that the only way their aircraft would have a chance to compete with other aircraft in its class was by outperforming the AC7 in every possible way, this would later have a great influence on the final design whinch ended up being completely different from the AC7. With a T tail, rear mounted engines and extremely clean aerodynamics to reduce drag werever possible the VA-1000 not only had greater range but also achieved a slightly higher speeds. Another advantage came as a result of the engineers decision to use turbofans to power the aircraft from the start something that CAV's AC7 lacked and wouldnt use until after the VA-1000 entered service.
While the aircraft was being designed the sales team was desperately looking for buyers, the first orders came from Aeropostal and Avensa for 20 and 18 aircraft respectively and later more orders started arriving notably from Iberia for 15 aircraft and VASP for 10 bringing the orderbook to 63 enough to start production.The first airlines to put the aircraft into service were Aeropostal and Avensa in 1961 with Aeropostal flying from Caracas to New York and Avensa from Caracas to London. It wasnt long before Viasa noticed the VA-1000's performance and as a result asked CAV for an improved AC7 (AC7-300) but knowing the aircraft would not be ready soon enough the airline ordered 22 VA-1000's in late 1961 with the first arriving in november 1962.
General characteristics
Crew: 4 + 3 flight attendants
Capacity: 164-196 passengers
Length: 55.63 m
Wingspan: 44.55 m
Height: 12.85 m
Wing area: 264.9 m2
Empty weight: 71,270 kg
Max. takeoff weight: 152,420 kg
Powerplant: 4 × VeneAvia TR-6-24A turbofan, 24.000 lbf dry thrust each
Performance
Maximum speed: 970 km/h
Range: 10,420 km
Service ceiling: 43,000 ft (13,105 m)