Hawker Siddeley Trident Trident 2E

BEA asked for more range again and Hawker Siddeley answered with the Trident 1F: Spey 511 engines, a 2.8 m fuselage stretch and 128 seats. The changes piled up until the project changed name: the Trident 2E was born, the E for Extended Range. It carried the new 53.1 kN Spey 512s, replaced leading-edge droop flaps with slats and extended the span with tips derived from the research of Dietrich Küchemann and Erich von Holst.

Over the 1E, the 2E added the triplex autoland system — three redundant channels — which consolidated the Trident's advantage in fog operations. It flew on 27 July 1967 and entered service with BEA in April 1968.

Of the fifty built, BEA bought fifteen and Cyprus Airways two; the majority, 33, went to China's CAAC. After the thaw in relations between Britain and the People's Republic, China eventually acquired more than 35 Tridents, and it was there that the type kept flying until 1995, ten years after its retirement by British Airways.