A family of four-engine narrowbody jetliners produced by Convair between 1959 and 1963; only 102 were ever produced, and the money lost caused Convair to exit the airliner business permanently.
The Convair 880 was a narrowbody quadjet airliner produced by the convair division of General Dynamics from 1959 through 1962; a larger, faster version, the Convair 990, was produced from 1961 through 1963. They were the only jetliners Convair ever produced.
Development of what became the 880 began in April 1956, in response to the announcements of the boeing-707 and dc-8 the previous year. To counter the large head start enjoyed by boeing and douglas, Convair decided to build a jetliner that was faster than both the 707 and the DC-8, although at the expense of being smaller (seating only 110 passengers at most, compared to the 707's maximum of 189 passengers or the DC-8's limit of 173). The increase in speed was made possible by using the powerful General Electric CJ805-3 turbojet (derived from the J79 engine used on several supersonic fighter and bomber aircraft of the era), instead of the anemic Pratt & Whitney JT3C used by early 707s and DC-8s.
The 880 first flew on 27 January 1959, and entered service in May 1960 with Delta Air Lines, quickly followed by TWA; however, although a few other airlines also bought or leased 880s, the airliner failed miserably to penetrate the niche that Convair had seen for it. Its speed advantage didn't amount to much (especially after newer versions of the 707 and DC-8 were released with more powerful engines, which allowed them to fly at closer to the 880's speed), and it was earned at the cost of a higher fuel burn, which made the 880 more expensive to fly. In addition, the 880 turned out to be too small to be of much use on trunk routes; it could conceivably have seen success on shorter, lighter routes, but for the introduction of the boeing-720, which could afford to be (and was) much cheaper than the 880, due to its development costs being almost zero (as it was basically a straight cutdown of the 707). Thanks to all of this, only 65 880s were built over the three years of the program.
An inquiry by American Airlines could have saved Convair, as it led to the development of a bigger, more efficient, and even faster aircraft: the Convair 990, which first flew on 24 January 1961, entering service later that year. The 990 was stretched by ten feet from the 880; a more visually striking difference was the set of four large "anti-shock bodies" mounted on the rear portion of the wings, which considerably reduced drag when flying at transonic speeds (and, as an added bonus, provided additional fuel tankage). The engines were improved as well, with the 880's CJ805-3s being replaced by the CJ805-23, a turbofan variant.
Unfortunately, although the 990 was better than the 880, it still wasn't good enough. Despite the drag-reducing modifications and the more efficient engines, the 990 was still a thirstier aircraft than the 707 or DC-8 (both of which, by this point, were themselves adopting turbofan technology), and, although bigger than the 880, it was still too small. Convair made further drag reductions and came out with the 990A, but, although the 990A still holds the record - even today - for the fastest-ever subsonic airliner (in May 1961, a prototype 990A reached mach 0.97 in level flight, and the later 990As had less drag and could have flown even faster), it lost out to Boeing's and Douglas's offerings. 37 990s and 990As were built between 1961 and 1963, bringing the Convair 880 family to a grand total of only 102 aircraft produced. General Dynamics - Convair's parent company - lost around $200 million on the 880 and 990, and Convair left the business of building and selling its own airliners, never to return (although it did later turn a tidy profit as a contractor for building other manufacturers' airliners).
The same factors that made the 880 and 990 unattractive to airlines when Convair was trying to sell them also worked against them once they were in service; although some second- and third-hand 880s and 990s continued to fly for decades, the last one (a 990A owned and operated by nasa) was retired in 1994.
For more information, see the Wikipedia articles about: