The British Aerospace 146 or BAe 146 is a regional jet aircraft designed for short sectors. The original assembly line was at Hatfield in England, the same place where the world’s first passenger airliner, the de Havilland Comet 1, was produced.
First flying on 3 September 1981, the aircraft entered service with Dan-Air on the London Gatwick to Berne route on 23 May 1983. Unusually for a short-haul aircraft, it features a high wing and is powered by four engines, the Lycoming ALF 502 turbofan.
British Aerospace 146 Video
Following on from last week’s video about the Inflatoplane, this week we head to the United Kingdom to look at the BAe 146. This promotional video was made around 1990, runs for just over two minutes and is called “146 – The Quiet Profit-maker”.
Unfortunately it is not the entire presentation, but it does give a good flavour for the aircraft. It was known for its rough field performance, ability to get in an out of small airports, and for how quiet it is. In fact, it was one of the few aircraft allowed to operate during the night under stringent noise restrictions at certain airports.
How About A Longer Presentation?
For those wanting to go in depth, there is an excellent video running for 55 minutes right here. It’s called “The British Aerospace 146 – The Making of an Airliner” from the BBC’s Nationwide programme.
It begins with a short history of British civil aircraft such as the Vickers Viscount and the de Havilland Comet. From there it looks at the production of the BAe 146 all the way through to the first flight.
Overall Thoughts
There were 221 British Aerospace 146 aircraft produced through to 1993. After this an upgraded version with more modern systems and engines came about. Interestingly, it was given a new name, the Avro RJ and there are many in service today.
Plans were afoot for further upgrades at the turn of the century, but the Avro RJX programme was terminated in 2001. You can find one RJX at the Runway Visitor Park next to Manchester Airport, which is also where you can find a British Airways Concorde, as well as a Hawker Siddeley Trident.
Have you ever flown on board a British Aerospace 146 or an Avro RJ? I’ve been on the RJ with CityJet and Brussels Airlines and found it to be quite comfortable. Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image by Michael F. Mehnert via Wikimedia Commons.
Yup, I remember the DH/HS/BAe 146, having worked as an aerodynamicist at Hatfield in the 1980’s. I can remember walking around the first prototype during its rollout along with some colleagues seeing how many pictures we could get into with all the magazine photographers. We managed the front page of Flight International and Air Pictorial, amongst others, so had a successful day .
Later on, I can also remember watching the “first flight”, though the aircraft had actually got airbourne by a couple of feet a few days earlier, during some high speed runs no down the runway.
In a lovely gesture later, as employees we were given the opportunity to go on a short flight in one of the PSA liveried aircraft, to experience what it was like to fly in the 146.
Sadly, BAe Hatfield no longer remains, though some of the buildings are still there being used by the University of Hertfordshire.
That must have been really something to be proud of, to see a first flight and also to fly on the aircraft very early on in its career. I’ve flown on some of the Avro RJs so never the original 146 but I remember seeing it in Australia in Ansett service quite frequently. Hatfield is really steeped in history from an aviation perspective – a shame it’s no longer what it was, but things change over time. I’m glad you took the time to comment, so thank you very much for that – I love hearing from people who were there at the time. Cheers!
This was my fantasy private jet when I was a kid. I believe theres quite few still flying especially in the UK.
It’s almost like a mini Jumbo with the four engines, isn’t it? There are quite a number around the UK and Ireland of course, and a bunch in Australia too. Thanks for the comment!
Very well indeed. Air Nova and Air BC had 5 each and Flew them on many occasions, mainly between YOW & YHZ. Another notable trip was on Air UK’s 146 from AMS to STN. AN NZ 146 DUD AKL and SN’s 146 to a few European destinations. Due to the fabulous reliability of the ALF 502s BAe at Air Nova stood for Bring Another Engine.
Hahahaha! I like the Bring Another Engine thing! Nice! You’ve also flown the 146 with plenty of airlines scattered around the world. That’s really good! It certainly was popular in its niche. Thanks for the comment!
May have missed this one on the “Airplanes You’ve Flown” thread but I did get to fly the Avro 85 on Mesaba Airlines (Northwest Airlink) once from St. Louis to Memphis. In fact, IIRC I went out of my way to fly it.
NW and Continental had an alliance at the time and I was looking to visit friends in Tucson, Arizona. CO offered me a STL-IAH-TUS return but for the same price they offered a STL-MEM-IAH-TUS return with the NW/CO code-share. An av-geeks dream come true!
This routing gave me two new airports (MEM/IAH) and one new aircraft type, the Avro. The STL-MEM segment was short, less than an hour’s flight time and was unremarkable, but It had been a while since I had flown a high wing aircraft so that was fun. The return MEM-STL segment was the (then) ubiquitous NW DC-9.
MEM was a joy to fly through, IAH was horrible (too spread out for my tastes) and that was before much of the relatively recent expansion of the terminals. I swore I would never fly through IAH again if I could avoid it, and so far I haven’t.
Cool little jet.
Hahaha! I love how you took a longer routing at the same price because it was two new airports and a new aircraft type. I totally feel you on that one as it’s something I’d probably do myself. I haven’t been to either MEM or IAH actually, so that’s good to know in both cases. Great that you enjoyed flying on the 146! It definitely operated in a lot of countries over the years. Thanks for the comment!
Many times on AirBC back in the 80s and early 90s between YEG/YXD and YVR.
There’s an airline I haven’t heard for a while! I remember seeing photos of AirBC aircraft. Thanks for the reminder on that! Sounds like some good flight there.
Flew a BAE many years ago from Aspen, Colorado to Denver. Flew an Avro six years ago from Dublin to Paris CDG.
Now there’s a good state to visit, Colorado! I haven’t been to Aspen yet, just Denver and Colorado Springs. Nice you’ve been on both the old and new version of the aircraft. Thanks for the comment!
Parts of the aircraft were built close to where I was brought up at British Aerospace Chadderton. Remember seeing the 146 on a number of flypasts when they had family days. Although nice we much preferred seeing the Nimrod and very occasionally Vulcan or Shackleton flypasts.
Sadly Chadderton and Woodford have both closed.
I’d say the Nimrod and others made much more noise and were more impressive than the quiet BAe 146, which was probably a lot more exciting. A lot of those facilities have closed over the years. Things aren’t what they once were when it comes to aircraft manufacture. Thanks for the comment!