3D model
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A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as ZE701, one of the two VIP 146s delivered to The Queen’s Flight in 1986 and later flown by No. 32 (The Royal) Squadron at Northolt, in gloss white with light-grey wings and tailplane, a dark-blue cheatline with a red stripe broken by two narrow bars behind the forward door, a Union flag high on the fin, a small roundel and the serial ZE701 on the rear fuselage, its defensive-aids pods still fitted and red covers over its four intakes, as it is displayed at IWM Duxford. Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.3 MB)
History
The BAe 146 CC.2
Hawker Siddeley launched the HS.146 in August 1973 as a quiet regional airliner able to work from short runways close to towns. Rather than two big engines it used four small Lycoming ALF 502 turbofans, slung in pods beneath a high wing, with a T-tail and a tail cone that split open as an airbrake for steep approaches. The oil crisis halted work in October 1974, but the newly formed British Aerospace relaunched the design in July 1978, and the first 146-100 flew from Hatfield on 3 September 1981.
Dan-Air flew the first passenger services in May 1983. The 146 was built in three lengths, the -100, the stretched -200 and the -300, and was sold as the ‘Whisperjet’: it was quiet enough for airports with strict night and noise rules, and it was one of the few jet airliners cleared for the steep approach into London City Airport. From 1993 it was improved and rebuilt as the Avro RJ series, assembled at Woodford near Manchester, and a re-engined RJX flew in 2001 before the programme was cancelled that year. Nearly 400 were built, which makes it the most successful British jet airliner.
In 1983 the Queen’s Flight borrowed two 146-100s to try them as royal transports, and in 1986 it took delivery of its own as the BAe 146 CC.2, with a VIP cabin. When the Queen’s Flight merged into No. 32 (The Royal) Squadron at Northolt in 1995 the 146s went with it, carrying members of the Royal Family, prime ministers, ministers and senior officers. Two ex-freight 146-200s joined them as the C.3 in 2013 and flew in Afghanistan, and the RAF retired its last 146s in March 2022, after 36 years.
This airframe
BAe 146 CC.2 ZE701
ZE701 was one of the two 146 ‘Statesman’ VIP aircraft delivered to The Queen’s Flight in 1986, and for almost nine years it flew the Royal Family from Benson. In 1995 it moved with the merged flight to No. 32 (The Royal) Squadron at Northolt, where for 27 more years it carried royalty, prime ministers, ministers and senior officers. It was retired in early 2022 and flown into Duxford that January to join the British Airliner Collection, where it stands as the gazetteer’s only complete 146. The model shows it as displayed there, in the squadron’s last scheme: gloss white with light-grey wings and tailplane, a dark-blue cheatline with a red stripe through it, broken by two narrow bars behind the forward door, a Union flag high on the fin, a small roundel on the cheatline and ‘ZE701’ behind the rear door, its defensive-aids pods still fitted and red covers over its four intakes.
Where to see one
In the gazetteer
The gazetteer records the BAe 146 CC.2 in 5 UK collections. The airframe modelled here is marked.