American Astrojets
By far the biggest US customer for BAC 1-11 was American
Airlines, which ordered 15 examples and took options on 15
more (all of which were later converted to firm commitments)
on July 17, 1963.
The carrier had settled on the -400 variant, an Americanised
version of the series 300 completed with domestically produced
instrumentation and equipment, after an extensive evaluation
of the DC-9. While there was pressure to favour a US-built
machine, the Douglas jet was running a couple of years behind
the foreign challenger and American Airlines was in a hurry to
receive its jets.
BAC even offered American a Pratt & Whitney JT8D-
powered option – offering compatibility with its fleet of 727s –
but the six months it would take to certify the modified variant
was deemed too long and the Astrojet 400s, as they were dubbed
in American service, were ordered with Rolls-Royce Speys.
To save weight, the aircraft were not fitted with ventral stairs,
just integral stairs for the forward left door.
The second prototype BAC 1-11-400 (G-ASYE) was flown
across the Atlantic in early December 1965 to be loaned to
American Airlines for a month of pilot training. The carrier's
first two examples followed on December 22 and 23 beforeentering into revenue service on March 6, 1966 between New
York (La Guardia) and Toronto.
By the summer of 1966, American’s fleet of BAC 1-11-401s
were making 1,200 departures per week from 22 airports, while
the carrier recorded an impressive average daily utilisation of
nine hours and 33 minutes.
Early the following year, American set out to make a dent in
the key New York to Boston market, which carried two million
passengers per year. The newly created Jet Express product was
launched on February 12, with an Astrojet 400 flying in both
directions every hour – 16 times a day. The service provided
15,000 seats per week, 10,000 of which were offered at a $16
coach fare ($123 in 2018 money) and the remaining 5,000 as a
First Class service at $32 ($246).
As the 1970s dawned, American decided to standardise on
the 727 and 707 for narrow-body flying, and its BAC 1-11s,
having opened up dozens of small communities to jet service,
were gradually retired. Two had been transferred to independent
British carrier Dan-Air back in 1969, while the rest of the fleet
was stood down between 1973 and 1974. Notably, 21 of the
fleet were converted to executive transports, and the remainder
sold to airlines such as Bahamasair, TAROM of Romania, and
Austral of Argentina.Leased BAC 1-11s
were popular tour
transports for rock
stars and bands in
the 1980s and 1990s.
Elton John leased
N800DM to support
his 1984 'Breaking
Hearts' tour.
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A • Air
Illinois acquired
two ex-USAir BAC
1-11-203s in July
1982 for services from
Spring field, Illinois.
N1547 later passed
to Florida Air and
Braniff before joining
ADC Airlines in
Nigeria as 5N-BAA.
It was written off at
Calabar, Nigeria in
1997 when it overshot
the runway in
bad weather.
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C 56 AIRLINER Classics 2018