AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 237 / 238

Plate 237 of 238 · Modern age · Regional jet airliner

Avro RJX

Avro RJX-100, painted as G-IRJX, c/n E3378, the RJX-100 prototype, first flown at Woodford on 23 September 2001, two months before BAE Systems cancelled the programme, and flown to Manchester Airport on 6 February 2003 for display at the Runway Visitor Park: the last British airliner, an Avro RJ100 airframe re-engined with four Honeywell AS977 turbofans in longer nacelles under its high wing, with a T-tail and the split tail-cone airbrake of the BAe 146, shown standing level on its wheels with its doors closed: gloss white with a navy fin, tail cone and upper rear fuselage, navy pylons and wing-root fairings, a large white ring with mid-blue arcs on the fin, ‘AVRO’ in navy and ‘RJX’ in red behind the forward door, a light-grey ring motif on the nose, the registration ahead of the rear door, grey wings and tailplane and bare-metal intake lips (shape from the RJ70 three-view stretched to RJ100 length, checked against 146-300 plan silhouettes and against camera-matched photographs of G-IRJX, with the paint and markings following photographs of it at Manchester).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as G-IRJX, c/n E3378, the RJX-100 prototype, first flown at Woodford on 23 September 2001, two months before BAE Systems cancelled the programme, and flown to Manchester Airport on 6 February 2003 for display at the Runway Visitor Park: the last British airliner, an Avro RJ100 airframe re-engined with four Honeywell AS977 turbofans in longer nacelles under its high wing, with a T-tail and the split tail-cone airbrake of the BAe 146, shown standing level on its wheels with its doors closed: gloss white with a navy fin, tail cone and upper rear fuselage, navy pylons and wing-root fairings, a large white ring with mid-blue arcs on the fin, ‘AVRO’ in navy and ‘RJX’ in red behind the forward door, a light-grey ring motif on the nose, the registration ahead of the rear door, grey wings and tailplane and bare-metal intake lips (shape from the RJ70 three-view stretched to RJ100 length, checked against 146-300 plan silhouettes and against camera-matched photographs of G-IRJX, with the paint and markings following photographs of it at Manchester). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.7 MB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (); engine, crew and dimensions are for the Avro RJX-100 modelled here.

History

The Avro RJX-100

By the late 1990s the Avro RJ, the BAe 146 rebuilt and renamed in 1993, was selling steadily from the assembly line at Woodford near Manchester, but its four Lycoming-derived engines were thirsty and costly to maintain beside the new regional jets from Canada and Brazil. In February 1999 British Aerospace announced an improved RJ powered by the Honeywell AS977, a new turbofan from the same family with a modern core and a long-duct, mixed-flow nacelle. The RJX programme was launched on 21 March 2000, offered in the same three lengths as the RJ: the RJX-70, RJX-85 and RJX-100.

The new engines promised about 15 per cent less fuel burn, 17 per cent more range, lower noise and maintenance costs about 20 per cent lower than the RJ’s. Druk Air of Bhutan ordered two RJX-85s, and British European ordered twelve RJX-100s with options on eight more. The RJX-85 prototype first flew from Woodford on 28 April 2001 and the RJX-100 prototype, G-IRJX, followed on 23 September, and a first production RJX-100 for British European was nearing completion.

The attacks of 11 September 2001 threw the airline industry into crisis just as the RJX was beginning its flight trials. On 27 November 2001 BAE Systems closed its regional aircraft business and cancelled the programme, with the loss of more than 1,600 jobs. The production aircraft flew in January 2002 for less than nine hours before it was scrapped, the last RJs left Woodford in 2003, and with them ended the line of airliners built in Britain to British designs.

This airframe

Avro RJX-100 G-IRJX

G-IRJXThe airframe modelled

G-IRJX (constructor’s number E3378), the second RJX and the only RJX-100 prototype, first flew at Woodford on 23 September 2001, ten weeks before the programme was cancelled. It flew on as a trials aircraft until it was flown across to Manchester Airport on 6 February 2003 and handed to the Runway Visitor Park, where it has stood ever since. It is the only complete RJX on public display. The model shows it as it stands there, in the scheme it wore for its test flying: gloss white with a navy fin, tail cone and upper rear fuselage, navy pylons and wing-root fairings, a large white ring with mid-blue arcs on the fin, ‘AVRO’ in navy and ‘RJX’ in red behind the forward door, a light-grey ring motif on the nose, grey wings and tailplane and bare-metal lips on its four long AS977 nacelles.

See it at Runway Visitor Park, Manchester Airport

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the Avro RJX-100 in 2 UK collections. The airframe modelled here is marked.

Every airframe and serial All 238 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.