The British Aerospace ATP is a turboprop airliner produced which was produced in Great Britain. It first flew on 6 August 1986 and entered service with British Midland in May 1988.
Designed as an evolution to the Hawker Siddeley HS 748, the aircraft seated 64 to 72 passengers. Intended for short range routes, this efficient aircraft sold only 64 examples.
British Aerospace ATP Video
Following on from last weeks video on the Tupolev Tu-104, this week there is a short two minute video about the ATP. What does ATP stand for? Advanced Turbo Prop of course!
The video was produced around 1990, as the aircraft is already in service. You get to see a couple of the operators such as British Airways and British Midland as well as some cabin shots.
In the USA, the ATP was operated by Air Wisconsin for United Express. Featuring good short field performance, the Pratt & Whitney Canada PW126 powered aircraft was also very quiet.
Today, there are 17 aircraft still in service as freighters in Sweden and Indonesia. The final aircraft was delivered in 1996 and passenger services ended earlier in 2018 with the bankruptcy of NextJet in Sweden.
Overall Thoughts
With a small production run, the British Aerospace ATP was not a major success for its manufacturer. A crowded marketplace which included the de Havilland Canada Dash-8, ATR42 and ATR72 meant it did not make the inroads needed to sell more.
Airlines in the UK such as Manx Airlines, British Airways and British Midland successfully operated the aircraft. Other European carriers also used the aircraft, and they could be found as far afield as Indonesia.
Did you ever fly on the BAe ATP? What was it like? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image by Anthony Noble via Airliners.net
delivered one if these to a uk operator and then trained many crews on it. Vibrations were NOT a problem on properly maintained aircraft and it handled well on difficult weather if flown by competent pilots. The long nose leg version could use airbridges and did so at uk alrports with them and on BA IGS routes out of Tegel. It was a massive advance on the 748 but the poor BAe sales effort limited sales and eventually, the cost of ‘c’ checks ensured it could not compete economically with the vastly inferior ATR 72 which admittedly had a more advanced if less robust design. And of course the arrival of the stretched DHC8 and 50 seat jets did for it too…..
Friend of mine was FO on a atp cargo In Sweden. I sat on the jumpseat and for a while on the right seat. And when the capt said; disengage the AP. I was sweating all over, but flew the airplane. Made a night trip to Stockholm and back to Malmö.
As a FSX geek had a ‘as real as it gets’ experience!
Had a blast!
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0agP6i9od19wHILa5UMx6vl8Q
That’s pretty awesome that you got to fly the plane for a bit! I think a lot of that kind of thing used to go on before the advent of secure cockpits. Great photo as well! I’m very jealous 🙂 Thanks for sharing that!
I worked at the Woodford factory that produced it, as with many aircraft they produced what they could afford, instead of what the market needed. We did get it flying on the exact day it was supposed to. It had European Avionics, Smiths EFIS and SFIM Autopilot. I went on to work on another Turbo-prop, the SAAB 2000. But the civil turbo-prop died when the RJs came along. The Dash 8’s and ATRs kept the rest of the market. My picture of testing of a United Express ATP at Woodford in the 80’s https://photos.app.goo.gl/HE2BDQwXjxWCN9U37
It’s a shame they produced what they could afford rather than what the market needed but that happens more often than people think. Great to hear it was on schedule as well! Thanks a lot for the comment and the picture, that was excellent to see!
Flew it with 2 separate airlines. BA where the vibrations were so bad you could see waves in your tea. Also flew the picture aircraft to visit Air Wisconsin in ATW. Flew through very rough weather and the cabin got quite aromatic form pax emissions (sans my contribution).
Interesting that the vibration was pretty intense on board. That Air Wisconsin flight sounds pretty awful, I must say – nothing like horrible weather to send everyone for their sick bags! Thanks for the comment!
Interesting article, Trent. I had a few trips between Manchester and Belfast on these back in the 1990s, I think. Fine for a short journey although I recall it being a bit noisy. The BAe 146 was pretty common in that period – perhaps you could do a feature on that model?
Thank you! Someone on Twitter referred to the aircraft as the Skoda of the skies, so I don’t think she particularly liked the ATP 🙂 I definitely will be doing one on the BAe 146, so keep your eyes out for it down the line. I have quite a few still to cover!