The Bizarre Rear-Engined Jet That Shocked American Aviation

In 1961, United Airlines did something no major American carrier had done before — or has done since. They bought twenty jet airliners from France. The Sud Aviation SE 210 Caravelle was a short-haul jetliner with both engines mounted on the rear fuselage, a clean wing free of nacelles, and a cabin quieter than anything else in the sky. Designed in Toulouse by Pierre Satre's team, powered by Rolls-Royce Avons built in Derby, and featuring a nose section licensed directly from the de Havilland Comet, the Caravelle proved that a European manufacturer could crack the most competitive airline market on earth. But proving a concept and owning a market are very different things. This is the story of the rear-engined jet that changed short-haul aviation forever — and the American competitors that used its own ideas to replace it.