BAE Systems

BAe 146: the last British Airliner 3

Introduction

I

n 1977 the UK’s fi xed-wing airframe

companies were merged to become British

Aerospace (BAe). The newly-formed

company inherited a number of military

programmes; the Tornado, Jaguar, Harrier and

Hawk which assured steady work for the

military aircraft sector of the organisation. The

civil sector was less secure as its major

products were mostly at the end of their

production cycle. To maintain BAe’s position in

this sector, the 125 and Jetstream were further

developed, the company rejoined the Airbus

consortium and BAe146 received the go-

ahead.

BAe merged with GEC-Marconi to become

BAE SYSTEMS in 1999, which altered the

balance of its portfolio. By 2006 the company

had completely withdrawn from civil aircraft

manufacture and had evolved into a much

broader-based defence contractor which was

also a major manufacturer of warships and

military vehicles. It remains a major military

aircraft manufacturer as it is a lead partner in

the Eurofighter Typhoon and in the F-

Lightning 2, besides producing the Hawk

trainer and investing heavily in innovative

military UAV programmes.

Acknowledgements: I would like to acknowledge the assistance provided to me by Dave Ward and Bernard Page of BAE North West Heritage,

Warton, George Jencks of Avro Heritage, Woodford, Peter Hotham of BAE Brough, George Rollo, Ken Haynes, Barry Guess and Trevor Friend of

BAE SYSTEMS Archive, Farnborough. Cover images: BAE Systems.

Author: Stephen Skinner

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British Aerospace’s combat

aircraft and the EAP

(Experimental Aircraft

Programme) prior to the

advent of the Eurofighter

Typhoon. From the front;

EAP ZF534, Hawk 100

Demonstrator ZA101, Hawk

200 prototype ZH200, Harrier

GR5, Sea Harrier FRS1,

Tornado GR4 and Tornado F3.

(BAE SYSTEMS via Warton Heritage)

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