Frontier Airlines Convair 580     N73106              (c/n   7)

                                  

                                     Frontier, like most Local Service operators (soon to be called Regional Carriers) updated their
                                     Convair fleet in the mid 1960s with turboprops.  Frontier elected to go with the Convair 580
                                     conversion which meant replacing the Pratt & Whitney R-2800-CB16s piston engines with
                                     Allison 501-D13D turboprops fitted with four bladed Aeroproducts props.  Additionally the
                                     area of the fin and rudder was also increased.  Bob Garrard took this early morning shot at
                                     Stapleton Airport, Denver in July of 1967, two years after N74106 had been converted. 
                                     In October of 1967 Frontier acquired Central Airlines and with the acquisition came some
                                     eleven Convair 600s.  Central, in converting their own Convairs had opted for the Rolls-Royce
                                     powered variation (very few US airlines did).   I have been unable to unearth an image of a
                                     Convair 600 in Frontier livery, despite the fact that they held onto them for about eighteen
                                     months after the merger.   Possibly they retained their Central colors until they were disposed of?