42 The Aircraft of British Aerospace and BAE SYSTEMS 1977 - 2017
British Aerospace and the 146
At nationalisation in April 1977 the newly
formed British Aerospace inherited the
Hawker Siddeley 146 jet airliner project
which had been given the go-ahead in
August 1973 but then a little more than a
year later been shelved. However, the
unions and workers had protested so
fiercely that the Labour Government paid
Hawker Siddeley to maintain a small team
working on the airliner to allow the
nationalised corporation the option of
reactivating this project after it was
established.
Initial impressions were that the
management of the newly-formed British
Aerospace also thought the 146 was not
viable. Clearly this was not the time for
the Unions to relax their pressure. More
meetings were held with MPs and the
British Aerospace Board. Finally, on 10 July
1978 the Government gave approval for
work restart the BAe146.The BAe 146 goes ahead
The ‘resurrected’ BAe 146 would be in two
forms – a civil airliner and a military cargo
lifter - though the cargo lifter was never
built. The cost was estimated at £250m,
which the newly nationalised firm wasThe last British
airliner – the BAe146
expected to finance itself. The resurrection
of the 146 was part of a BAe strategy to
invest in the civil side of the business. The
Jetstream 31 was launched and as
Hawker Siddeley had remained an Airbus
sub-contractor (despite the Labour
Government’s ill-advised decision to
withdraw from it in 1969), BAe was able to
buy back into it and become a full
risk-sharing partner with a 20% holding.The BAe 146 was unchanged from the
HS146. It had a simple design that could
be managed by unsophisticated
operators requiring the minimum of
ground equipment. The aircraft would
have four doors, airstairs, an APU (or
batteries) for engine starting, and two
freight holds with a low sill height. Two
basic versions were on offer in two
configurations: the 146-100 seating 70-88 The BAe 146-100
prototype G-SSSH
airborne on its
95-minute maiden
flight from Hatfield
on 3 September- (BAE SYSTEMS)
BAe sensibly developed the larger 146-200 at the same time as the 146-100 and it proved to be the best-selling version.
The first 146-200, G-WISC was the fourth 146 to fly. It took to the air from Hatfield on 1 August 1982. (BAE SYSTEMS)