Manufacturer: SNCASO (Sud-Ouest)

Model: S0-6650

Name: Triton III

Type: Jet airliner

Date: 1950

Status: Service test

Country: France

Service: Commercial (Air France)

Designation: none

Developed from the lessons learned with the original Triton prototype (the very first French jet aircraft), the SNCASO (Sud-Ouest) SO-6650 Triton III was an elegant aircraft but a poor airliner.

Air France took delivery of 5 four-jet Tritons in November 1951 for use on short range local lines, but clearly this was a type in search of a purpose, being the size of a business jet at a time when the concept did not yet exist, too small to make an efficient airliner and too costly to make it worthwhile.

Seating was only one on each side of the central aisle, and room was ridiculously small, making it impossible to stand up in the aisle for the average passenger. All five Tritons were written off in August 1953, less than two years after entering service.

The Triton (photo below right) was France's first jet aircraft and it flew in 1946. Ever since I was a kid, seeing the surviving prototype for real has always been a source of inspiration because of its unique lines, so different from what other countries were developing at the same time.

Here I tried to imagine what an airliner based on the general shape of the Triton might have been... Hard to conceive that the Triton III was created using the photo provided here as as a starting point since almost every detail of the aircraft was changed except for the main wheels and the elevators! I even added a background as I thought it looked better to have a hangar and a landscape in the image...

• Square windows for the passengers are a very typical 1946 design, before the Comet accidents and explanation... Good fake! (Tophe)
• Outrageous! (Caravellarella)
• I really like this one but i would prefered if you kept the same jet engine configuration. (Hamza)

I changed the engine configuration partly because I thought there wouldn't be enough room in the fuselage for passengers if I retained the original one... As I called this the Triton III, one can easily imagine that the Triton II may have been an earlier attempt at creating a transport while retaining the original engine configuration... ;)