The Aircraft of British Aerospace and BAE SYSTEMS 1977 - 2017 21Legacy aircraft programmes
trials and the first production aircraft
G-AYWN flew in June 1971. The Bulldog
was also tested for a ground-support role
and firing trials were completed with
Sneb 68mm rockets from Matra
launchers, while the Sweden Air Force
Bulldogs were operational with the Bofors
Bantam wire-guided missiles.
The Bulldog was chosen to replace the
Chipmunk with the RAF which ordered
130 and production rate peaked at seven
a month while this contract was being
completed. Bulldog production ended in
1983 after 325 aircraft had been built with
deliveries to ten customers, the largest of
which were the RAF and Sweden.
Civil aircraft
BAe inherited three civil programmes
from the former Hawker Siddeley. These
were the twin turboprop 748, the 125
executive jet and the medium-range
Trident jet airliner. The first and the
second were established in production
and had orders outstanding - the 125
clearly had great potential, and both
aircraft were to receive further
development. (See details of the 748 and
125 below.) In contrast production of the
Trident at Hatfield was nearing its end
with just ten Trident 2Es remaining on the
production line for the CAAC, the Chinese
State Airline.
From the former British Aircraft
Corporation, BAe inherited the short-
range One-Eleven jet airliner and
Concorde. Production of the former was
continuing at a low rate and there were
proposals for major development which
BAe would need to consider. As for
Concorde, though it was rightly regarded
as a great technical success it was then
clear by 1977 that no more than 16
production aircraft would be built, after
the original expectation of sales of 150
aircraft.The BAC One-Eleven after
1977 – developments that
sadly came to nought
The BAC One-Eleven which first flew in
August 1963 with 60 orders in hand
seemed ready to emulate its turboprop
predecessor, the Vickers Viscount, Britain’s
most successful airliner. Though there
were major setbacks when the prototype
crashed in a deep stall and there were
two other accidents during the test
programme, the One-Eleven entered
service in April 1965.
The initial model, the One-Eleven 200
was developed into the 400 which had a
greater payload, but despite requests
from many airlines, it was not until
September 1968 that the stretched 500
series entered service. A further
development, the One-Eleven 475 which
had the shorter fuselage of the 400 with
the wings and higher-powered Speys of
the 500 Series failed to make headway in
the market. The Rolls-Royce Spey that
powered the One-Eleven lacked growth
potential and this held the aircraft back
against the Douglas DC-9 and Boeing 737
and by the early 1970s, sales began to
slow. By mid-1977 221 One-Elevens had
been built by BAC and production was
now at a very low level. (Only 14 more
were delivered between then and the
closure of the Hurn plant in 1984, when
production was transferred to Romania.)Licence production in Romania
With British Aerospace’s decision todevelop the BAe 146 in 1978, further
substantial development for the
One-Eleven was at an end. The BAe Board
entered into a licence production
contract of the One-Eleven with Romania,
the aircraft branded as ROMBAC
One-Elevens, ‘ROM’ for Romania and ‘BAC’
for the original BAC.
The licensing agreement included the
sale of three complete aircraft for the
Romanian airline Tarom, to be built at
Hum. But the main part of the deal was
the supply of twenty-two aircraft sets of
structural components, equipment,
details and raw materials for the
Romanian production line. After the
twenty-second aircraft, indigenous
One-Eleven production was to be
established and the Romanian aircraft
industry would be free to produce as
many One-Elevens as it could sell. The
three Hum-built aircraft comprised two
500s and a 475 freighter. The second 500,
YR-BCO was ceremonially handed over on
12 March 1982 as the last One-Eleven to
be completed at Hurn.
The production of One-Elevens at
Baneasa in Romania, made painfully slow
progress, and between 1982 and 1989,
just nine ROMBAC One-Eleven 561RCs
were produced leaving a two aircraft
incomplete. With this slow rate of
production ROMBAC was never a reliable
supplier of aircraft and the nine aircraft
were all initially delivered to Tarom but
later leased to other operators.The Tay One-Eleven
With the advent of the Rolls-Royce Tay
engines in 1982, BAe Weybridge received
enquiries from Corporate 400 series
owners about the possibility of re- N650DH, the first
One-Eleven 400
re-engined with
Rolls-Royce Tay
engines during its
maiden flight from
San Antonio, Texas
in July 1990.
(Bill Hurley)