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Aviation History
1981
1981 - 1233.PDF
. . «tf' British Aerospace 146 described © by DAVID VELUPILLAI with [FtLDiJMTT colour cutaway by JOHN MARSDEN B RITISH Aerospace's 146 feeder-liner will be rolled out this month and, all being well, will make its first flight in July. It is the first new British airliner in almost 18 years, as well as the first to have been bred in the BAe stable. The uncer tainty which clouded the birth of the 146 is long past, and a glance at BAe's Hatfield assembly line reveals an ambitious production plan. BAe says that potential customers range from widebody operators down to the emerging commuter airline, for which the 146 would be a flagship. All prospects have three things in common—a turboprop fleet, low traffic-density routes, and a demand for low fuel-burn and noise. A feeder airline typically buys new aircraft be cause its existing fleet is nearing the end of its life, and because it wants to increase capacity. According to BAe, such an operator could fly a 44-seat 748 or an 80-seat 146 over a 200 n.m. stage for about the same cost/seat mile. It would thus make sense for an airline to opt for the passenger comforts of the turbo* fan-powered 146—provided that it could fly enough extra passengers on the route. Fleet size of a typical 146 operator is likely to range from two aircraft in the first two years up to 6-10 craft. There may also be a few airlines with 15-20 aircraft, but these would be the exception rather than the rule. The average user is likely to fly each 146 on 12-15 sectors a day. Typical sector length is expected to be 165 miles in North America, or 120 miles in Europe. Each aircraft will probably chalk up around 2,750 flying hr/year and will be kept for 10-15 years be- fore being sold. The route network of the operator is almost certain to in clude a well equipped hub-airport with paved runway, but some of the other stops are likely to be primitive. The shortest 146 design-range is 150 n.m., but another important aspect is its ability to fly a 150 n.m. sector followed by three 140 n.m. hops—without refuelling. The 146-100 can carry 701 passengers and baggage on this series of hops, which have a fast ground turnaround because of the craft's ability to land at 96 per cent of gross takeroff weight. Although the 146 is optimised for sectors of less than 300' n.m., some airlines might want to use it for inelusive^tour work at weekends—• when their business network is not in demand. The 146-1001 can carry 80 passengers and baggage a distance of 1,270 n.m. when an option to increase maximum take-off weight is exercised. BAe is currently asking $10-5 million at 1981 prices far an 82-seat 146-100, while the 100-seat 146-200 sells for $11 million (standard seating at 33in pitch). The 146-200 features plugs fore and aft of the wing that increase fuselage length by 7ft lOin, Heading BAe prepares to install the first ALF502R-3 on the number one airframe. Roll out is currently scheduled for May 20, while first flight will be seven to nine weeks later but is otherwise almost identical to the -100. Boeing's 115-seat 737-200 costs $2 milliom-$3 million more, and its fuel burn is much higher. BAe believes that there is a market for more than 1,500 aircraft seating 70^120 passengers between now and 1995. It believes that the bulk of this market is for the 70-100 seater, and expects to sell a total of about 4001 146s. The company originally thought it would sell roughly twice as many 146-100s as it would -200s, but there has since been an upsurge of interest in the -200. The company still believes that it will sell more -100s than -200s. The marketing team at Hatfield divides the world into six main areas —the USA, Australia, South America, Europei, Africa and the Middle East, and south east Asia, including Japan. BAe believes that its 146 sales will be spread roughly equally over these areas, although Australia and south east Asia may take a larger share. All feederliner manufacturers have orders that come in ones and twos— mainly because customers want small fleets, or because they cannot raise the money for a larger fleet in one go. BAe knows this from experience with its 748, which was launched be* fore there was a single order. It is thus not unduly concerned about the lack of firm 146 orders to date. The first airline to order the 146 was Lineas Aereas Privadas Argen- tinas (Lapa), which placed an order for two 146-lOOs and one -2001 in June last year. Lapa also took options on three -200s. Unfortunately, Lapa was unable to get the Argentinian routes it had planned for the 146, and is now
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