32 The Aircraft of British Aerospace and BAE SYSTEMS 1977 - 2017
A
fter selling more than 500
piston-engined de Havilland
Doves, Hatfield began
designing a jet replacement in
1961 powered by the Bristol Siddeley
Viper. The first prototype, G-ARYA flew
from Hatfield in August 1962 and the
second ‘RYB in December. The first
production aircraft G-ARYC, a 125 Series
1 which flew in February 1963 was the
first 125 assembled and flown from
Broughton.
The 125 was a conventional design
whose fuselage sat almost entirely atop a
low, moderately swept 47ft wing. Fittingthe wing in this manner provided a flat
cabin floor and aisle with headroom of
69 inches able to accommodate six to
ten passengers. Entrance was via a
single door which opened up and over
on the inside. The compact flightdeck
had seating and controls for two pilots
but could be flown by one. To maintain
simplicity all the flying controls were
manually operated and the wing had air
brakes and double-slotted flaps.In demand around the world
Orders mounted up speedily and by
mid-1963 the 125 already had 36 firmorders from the batch of sixty which had
been laid down. Of these, the RAF was
to receive 20 for navigational training.
More orders soon followed. G-ASSI
embarked on a 105-day tour of North
America which was so successful that 22
orders were received. Those 125s
destined for North America were
completed at Broughton unpainted,
unfurnished, with bare walls and fitted
with rudimentary avionics for delivery to
a Distributor’s Completion Centre on
the other side of the Atlantic.Military 125s
The RAF’s 20 125s, named Dominie T1
by the RAF, were navigation trainers and
the full fleet were in service by
mid-1966. They were specially
versioned for this role with a
comprehensive navigation panel with
appropriate avionics at the rear fuselage
bulkhead. Eleven aircraft from the
original order of 20 were put through a
Mid-Life-Update programme beginning
in 1992 to upgrade and modernise the
jets and to make them more
appropriate for training crews on
modern fast jet fleets. They were
withdrawn from use in January 2011.
Over 20 Governments operated
125s in VIP or support roles including
No 32 Squadron based at RAF Northolt,
which eventually had twelve aircraft.
In the late 1990s 125s were also
purchased as flight inspection aircraft by
seven countries including the USA and
Japan. G-ARYA, the
prototype de
Havilland (later
Hawker Siddeley)
125 having ground
trials at Hatfield
prior to its maiden
flight on 13 August- This aircraft
was one foot
shorter and its
wingspan was three
foot less than the
production aircraft.
(BAE SYSTEMS)
Executive best-
seller – the 125
RAF Dominie XS728 leaving Cambridge after a
major systems update by Marshall’s in August- (BAE SYSTEMS)