Zealand subsidiary acquired its four -200s
and four -300s in 1989-1990 and replaced its
-200s with 300s in the 1990s.
Following the large order for Hat eld-
built Tridents, China was an obvious, and
successful, target for BAe’s sales staff.
In 1985 ten 146-100s were ordered and
eight 300s joined them in the early 1990s.
Elsewhere in Southeast Asia the rst sale
of the 146-300 series was to Thai Airways
which ordered two in 1989 and eventually
increased the order to ve. These were
operated on domestic routes and were
replaced by Boeing 737s in 1998.
QUIET TRADER
BAe identi ed a market niche for its quiet
146 as a dedicated freighter capable of
accommodating standard pallets and tted
with a large door aft of the wing. Many
cargo aircraft were typically conversions of
elderly types and prone to be noisy, causing
problems for airports as many of their ights
were during the night. The 146QT had a
permanent freight oor and most of the
windows removed.
Production consisted of 13 -200QTs
and ten -300QTs, TNT Global Express
receiving 21 of these. The larger -300QTwas the more sought after owing to its
greater capacity.
In addition, there were ve -200QCs
which also had a permanent cargo oor but
had windows and cabin lockers. They could
work as freighters during the night and in the
day palletised seats could be loaded and the
aircraft could take on a normal passenger
con guration. The QC was not particularly
successful, it was more expensive and
was heavier than a normal -200, so had a
performance penalty.
In addition to the 200/300 series
conversions, there is a sole -100QT,A pair of 146-100s were purchased by the UK Government for Queen’s Flight duties in 1986.
The two, ZE700 (illustrated), and ZE701 now incorporated into 32 Squadron.