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Aviation History
1988
1988 - 3061.PDF
Sizing up the 146-300 The 146-300 is British Aero space's entrant into the "blue- chip" super-commuter market. Five years after assessment of the -100, Harry Hopkins flies the BAe 146-300. Cutaway by John Marsden and Paul Couper. With some emphasis, the prototype BAe 146-300 was registered as G-LUXE. In this aircraft, with its 100-seat, 32in-pitch, five-abreast layout and a 22in aisle, British Aerospace focuses on the needs of the discriminating passenger, who is now a feature of the maturing regional airline market—particularly in the USA, where the five-abreast layout on the type has already become popular. Air Wisconsin was an early customer, with an order for five -300 series to add to the ten -200s which it already has in service. The latest eight-foot stretch increases passenger capacity to 112 at six-abreast, and to 128 if type III escape exits are added at the middle of the cabin. The shape of the frames and side panels adds nearly two inches to internal width, and the new interior styling features larger luggage lockers, with doors tailored to give better access and allow light inside. A thicker fuselage skin strengthens the -300 at the mid-section. The gear is modified, and carbon brakes are now standard. The top wing skin and stringers are of new material, and the engine pylon attachments have minor changes. The powerplant remains the Textron-Lycoming ALF502R-5. The engine is now nearing two million hours and cycles on the BAe 146. Since the initial learning curve, in-flight shutdowns have dropped to about 0-01 per thousand hours. Unscheduled removals are also down, but since engine removal is easy, engineers often prefer to take the engine off rather than take advantage of the modular construction and work on the engine on the wing. An eight-foot fuselage stretch gives the BAe 146-300 sleeker lines The cockpit is largely unaltered. At the end of last year it was decided that, from airframe 163 at the end of 1989, the Honey well Efis will become standard. Thirty previous airframes will be capable of retrofit from halfway through that year. Test rig and simulation trials are under way, and certifica tion, on test aircraft 118 from early next year, will be complete in time for the Paris Air Show. A simple replacement of the present atti tude and heading instruments by 6in by 5in displays will go with digital DME and radar. LED panels for engine instrumentation, also to be shown at the Paris show, will generally be retrofittable. Two panels will replace 21 instruments, but the triple oil indication for each engine will remain at the top of those panels. British Aerospace, assured that Efis reliability is established, feels that the logic of the original design no longer applies. Honeywell declares a total system mean time between failures of over l,000hr—bettering standard instruments by 150 per cent. Longer-term plans, probably for the end of 1990, include digital ADC, dual IRS, and autothrottle for Cat IIIA capability, and, provisionally for IIIB, triple IRS. Present Cat II limits are a 100ft decision height and 350m runway visual range, with autopilot engagement approved down to 50ft. Studies are in hand for a full five-screen layout of 8in by 8in displays (Efis and single Eicas), and the installation of digital buses to go with a fully digital autopilot. BAe envis ages flat screens for this, believing that prod uction will be available in two years, but is content to allow the technology another two years to mature. Our flight was the eleventh for airframe 120, which is temporarily registered G-BOWW. Divisional chief test pilot Peter Sedgwick kept a keen eye in the right seat. Weight was 74,0001b; rotation and safety speeds were Vr 108kt and V2 116kt, using the mid-take-off flap setting of 24°. Take-off can be made at 30° flap, yet landing setting is only, 33°. Trim was mid-to-forward at 31-35 pertcent. AH four engines were running in a minute and a half from cold, commendable even for many a twin, and no TGT came within 200°C of the maximum start figure. The FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 22 October 1988 19
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