BAE Systems

The Aircraft of British Aerospace and BAE SYSTEMS 1977 - 2017 33

Developing the 125
The strong sales outlook for the 125
encouraged Hawker Siddeley to develop
it further and produce a 125 Series 3
which had detail improvements over the
Series 1 (the RAF Dominie was the Series
2), better air-conditioning, APU and
furnishing. Some Series 3 had an external
ventral fuel tank which fitted neatly under
the rear fuselage to extend the aircraft’s
range. Following on from the Series 3
came the Series 400 (henceforward all
new Series were in 100s) which had the
entrance door re-engineered, freeing up
space within the cabin.

Sales grow
The 125 was one of only two European-
built bizjets to have been widely adopted
by North American operators, the other
being the Dassault Falcon. In 1968 50
125s were sold and 44 the following year.
By then sales had reached 228 and of
these sales, 132 had been to US and
Canadian customers, representing 57% of
the total. The remaining 54 were sold to
other overseas countries; 22 to UK
operators; and 20 to the RAF as Dominies.
Amongst those UK sales were two
delivered to BAC for communications
flying on their collaborative programmes,
one aircraft based at Filton flying daily to
Toulouse for Concorde liaison and the
other shuttling between Warton and
Munich for Tornado co-operation.

More power leads
to the 125-600
The 125-600 which succeeded the
125-400 had more powerful and
economical Viper 601s, plus a 2ft fuselage
extension increasing maximum passenger
capacity to 14. It had better airfield
performance, could cruise at slightly
higher speeds and with its fuel capacity

increased by the addition of a fin tank had

a range of up to 1,875 mls. However,

owing to the introduction of noise

regulations in the USA and Europe a ‘hush

kit’ was fitted to the Viper 601s on some

aircraft but did not prove to be very

effective. So because of the noisiness of

the Rolls-Royce Viper 601s and the

increase in world oil prices, the 600 series

only made 71 sales.

The Turbofan 125-700

Despite concerns about the costs and the

threat of nationalisation of the aircraft

industry by the Labour Government,

Hawker Siddeley financed the re-engining

of the 125. As there was no Rolls-Royce

ExEcutivE bEst-sEllEr – thE 125

†

HB-VDL, a 125-600 registered in

Lichtenstein and owned by German dress

manufacturer Müller-Wipperfürth from

1973 until 1976. (BAE SYSTEMS)

‡ To celebrate the

sale of the 400th

125 there was a

line-up of twelve

125s and a further

one in the

background at BAe

Broughton on 20

April 1978. The 125s

were; G-BFAN,

G-AVOI, G-5-13,

G-BBEP, XS730,

G-BSAA, XW791,

unknown, XW930,

G-BARB, G-BEFZ,

G-AWWL and

G-BJCB. The Dan-Air

HS748 is G-ATMI.

(BAE SYSTEMS)

engine available the American-built

Garrett TFE731 was selected. This engine

offered 3,700lbs thrust; the noise footprint

was reduced by 80% and the greatly

improved fuel consumption almost

doubled the 125’s range.

The second prototype 125-600

G-AZHS was re-engined as the Series 700

prototype and suitably re-registered as

G-BFAN flew in July 1976. The first

production aircraft was G-BEFZ which

made its maiden flight in November

1976 and was based at Hatfield for test

flying and then flew on a worldwide

Sales Tour. Though aircraft were still

designated as 125-700A for North

America and 700B for the remainder of