BAe 146-100

The BAe 146-100 is the founding member of the family: the aircraft as Hawker Siddeley conceived it in 1973 under the HS.146 designation, a short-range quiet airliner powered by four small turbofans and backed by British government funding. Full-scale development lasted only a few months before a worsening recession put the project on ice; it survived on a limited scale until July 1978, when British Aerospace, Hawker Siddeley's corporate successor, formally relaunched it. The chosen layout paired a high wing and T-tail, for good short-field performance, with four Avco Lycoming ALF 502 geared turbofans derived from the T55 turboshaft of the Chinook helicopter. The gearbox keeps fan blade tip speed below the speed of sound, which was the main reason for the type's remarkably low noise and its Whisperjet nickname.

The first prototype, G-SSSH, took off from Hatfield on 3 September 1981 and was quickly followed by two more prototypes, including the second Series 100 airframe (E1002, G-SSHH), which flew on 25 January 1982 and went on to serve as the icing test aircraft in Iceland and Greenland, as a demonstrator on a sixteen-day tour of the United States, and as the training platform on which 64 Pacific Southwest Airlines pilots converted to the type over 623 hours and 1,391 cycles. Early flight results showed better take-off and climb performance than predicted. The Series 100 received its UK CAA type certificate on 4 February 1983, on a programme whose certification application had been lodged in May 1979. Before the first flight, British Aerospace had forecast that the short version would comfortably outsell the 146-200; in the event the airlines preferred the stretched fuselage.

Dan-Air was the launch customer: in May 1983 it opened commercial services with the type between London Gatwick and Bern. In the United States, Pacific Southwest Airlines took delivery of the first of its twenty aircraft on 1 July 1984, and in 1985 Aspen Airways inaugurated the first scheduled jet service into Aspen, Colorado, in the Rocky Mountains, with a 146-100 operating from an airfield 7,820 feet above sea level, a showcase of the variant's short-field and hot-and-high qualities. The same steep-approach, short-runway capability made the 146 for several years the only conventional jet able to operate from London City Airport.

The version also spawned the specialised derivatives: the 146-100QC (Quick Change) passenger/freight convertible, the 146-100QT (Quiet Trader) pure freighter, and the Statesman VIP interior that the Royal Air Force bought as the BAe 146 CC2. After leasing two aircraft in 1983 (as CC1s) to assess their suitability as Andover replacements, the RAF purchased two 146-100s in 1984, delivered in 1986 to the Queen's Flight, and a third bought in 1989 and delivered in 1990, later sold in 2002. The CC2s carried a bespoke interior for 19 passengers and six crew, and in 1995 moved with the Queen's Flight into No. 32 (The Royal) Squadron at RAF Northolt; they were retired in March 2022, with ZE700 now preserved at the South Wales Aviation Museum and ZE701 at IWM Duxford. A military proposal, the 146-100STA (Sideloading Tactical Airlifter) with a freight door, roller floor and an in-flight refuelling receptacle, was converted from the prototype G-SSHH in 1988, flew in August that year and toured Asia, Australia, the Middle East and the Americas without winning an order.

In figures, the 146-100 is 26.19 m long with a 26.34 m span and 77.30 m² of wing; operating empty weight is 23,288 kg and maximum take-off weight 38,101 kg under the certificate's absolute definition (34,473 kg in the basic one). It cruises at 767 km/h and reaches 3,000 km with standard fuel, or 1,630 km with maximum payload. The cabin seats 70 passengers five abreast, 82 six abreast or up to 94 in a high-density layout; the certificate sets maximum occupancy, crew included, at 100. ALF 502R-3 (30.0 kN) or R-5 (31.0 kN) engines could be mixed in any combination operating at the R-3 rating.

Series 100 production ended in 1992 after 37 aircraft, including the RAF's three VIP examples. It was the last of the three series to be developed into the Avro RJ standard: the RJ70, with FADEC-equipped LF 507 engines and digital avionics, began deliveries in late 1993. Preserved airframes include E1019 (B-2701) at the Civil Aviation Museum of China in Beijing and the fuselage of 1010 at the de Havilland Aircraft Museum in London Colney. The prototype G-SSSH enjoyed a second life: stretched as the 146-300 prototype (G-LUXE) and converted between 2001 and 2004 into the FAAM laboratory's 146-301 ARA, it passed 10,000 flying hours in 2025 and is intended to operate until 2040. On 25 September 1998 a PauknAir 146-100 (EC-GEO) crashed on approach to Melilla with 38 people on board, the variant's worst accident.