BAe 146: ¡más motores!

Video from the channel SkyShips en Español about BAe 146, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 24:20. Language: Spanish. Video type: Documentary.

The video tells the story of the BAe 146, known in its second generation as the Avro RJ: a high-wing, four-engined regional aircraft of which 387 units were delivered. It explains how that configuration came about, so different from its competitors'.

In the early 1970s, faced with American and Airbus competition, the British industry turned to regional transport, where more than 1,000 turboprops, including Hawker Siddeley's own HS 748, were due for replacement. After interviewing more than 60 airlines, the company settled on a jet for around 70 passengers that would keep a turboprop's field performance and allow for a freighter version. The high wing with podded engines made boarding, loading and maintenance easier. Since there was no money to develop a more powerful engine, four 31 kN Avco Lycoming ALF 502s were chosen. The British Government funded half of the programme, but the 1973 oil crisis left it officially frozen. In 1978 the nationalised Hawker Siddeley was folded into British Aerospace, which relaunched it as the BAe 146. The first prototype flew in September 1981 and certification was completed in early 1983.

The basic model weighed around 38 t, had a range of over 3,500 km, cruised at about 750 km/h and took off in under 1,200 m of runway. The cabin is 342 cm wide and accommodates rows of five or six seats. The engines have no thrust reversers: braking is handled by the spoilers, the wheel brakes and a two-panel tail airbrake. The 146-100, with 70 to 82 seats and a range of about 3,800 km, entered service with Dan-Air in 1983; the -200, which flew in 1982, could seat up to 100 passengers; and the -300, announced at Farnborough in 1984, reached 112 seats and 44 t. Quiet Trader freighter versions were also built. From 1987 it could operate at London City. In 1992 the line passed to Avro Regional Jets as the RJ70, RJ85 and RJ100, with updated engines and avionics: 166 of this generation were built, in addition to the 221 of the first. The RJ115 and the RJX never reached production. A BAe 146 was set to serve as the testbed for the E-Fan X, which replaced one engine with a 2 MW electric motor powered by batteries and a generator derived from Rolls-Royce's AE 2100 turboshaft, but the project was cancelled after the pandemic. Avro ended production in 2001; when the video was published, around 70 aircraft were still flying.