kept alive owing to the strength of worker
representations and the support of the Labour
government, which paid for small-scale of
work to continue at Hat eld until the aircraft
industry was nationalised by Labour.
When the state-owned British Aerospace
was formed in April 1977, there was no
immediate resuscitation of the project.
Indeed, a revamped, re-engined and larger
BAC One-Eleven was a competitor for funds.
The decision as to which one to develop
became a political question and eventually the
146, now the BAe 146, was chosen and work
restarted in July 1978.
The 146 was projected as suitable for
short runways at city-centre airports or
unsophisticated air elds. The -100 variant
would seat 85 passengers in a six-abreast
layout and was expected to replace
turboprops types. The 7ft 10in (2.38m)
longer 100-seat 146-200 would replace the
One-Elevens, McDonnell Douglas DC-9s
and Boeing 737s, which were expected to be
crippled by incoming noise regulations. This
latter prediction was soon proved wrong as
many of these older aircraft had their noisy
engines hush-kitted or new versions were
developed with quieter powerplants.
When the 146 was relaunched it had
no orders behind it, which highlights the
risk British Aerospace was taking. BAe
projected sales of 400 aircraft if it managed
to penetrate the American market. In a llip
for the programme, on the day of its roll outon May 20, 1981, an order was announced
by Air Wisconsin for four 146-200s and one
from Paci c Southwest Airlines soon followed.
These sales for the larger aircraft indicated
that it was a more marketable machine than
the smaller -100 and production of the rst
-200 was expedited.FIRST FLIGHTS
The prototype 146-100, G-SSSH, made
a successful rst ight from Hat eld on
September 3, 1981. The rst -200, G-WISC,
ew on August 1, 1982 in Air Wisconsin
livery. The 146 was certi ed in the UK on
February 4 the following year and by the
American Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA) on May 20.http://www.aviation-news.co.uk 49
Air UK was an early British operator of
the 146, receiving a pair of -200s in 1988
and later operating -300s. All photos Key
Collection unless stated