Avro RJX Takes to the Air

You can scarcely hear it, and you won't see it here, but the first BAE Systems Avro RJX regional jet made its maiden flight several weeks ago and has hardly ceased soaring since.

"Our program is to have this first third-generation airliner in service one year after its first flight; we have had a really successful start to its intensive flight test phase, and this is where the emphasis has to remain," BAE's Steve Pettigrew says. Hence its no show at this show.

Pettigrew says his goal is to have the RJX "first past the tape, and well ahead of our competitors," in providing a new-generation regional family jet which will expand to offer from 70 to more than 110 seats.

The RJX-85 will be joined in the test program by two of the larger RJX-100s, and first delivery will be in April 2002 to British European, which in a $600 million deal has ordered 12 of the largest 112-seat versions with options for eight more.

British European already operates 17 earlier BAe 146 airliners on a large UK route network from bases in London, the Channel Islands, Birmingham, Belfast and Scotland.

Additional orders for RJX are two plus eight options from Druk Air of Bhutan and BA's subsidiary City Flyer.

This latest of the four-engined high wing Avros, renowned for their environmentally friendly low noise levels, is the outcome of a collaboration between BAE Systems and Honeywell.

The aircraft has Honeywell's new AS977 engines with dual FADEC controls and conditioning monitoring systems, and digital flight data recorder for the engines and APU.

The RJX's flight deck has Honeywell LCD units of similar appearance to the 146s so that pilots can fly both on a common type rating.

The new aircraft, with its combined reductions in empty weight, and fuel burn, and improved take-off weight, has gained significantly greater range than its predecessors.

Marketing VP Nick Godwin cites range from Denver, Colorado-considered a benchmark airport in aircraft evaluation at high altitude and summer temperatures, increasing from 692 nmi with a BAe 146-300 to 1,620 nmi,-an improvement of 234%.

He says that of 263 airports in Europe with performance-demanding conditions, BAE had examined 42 in detail indicating that the RJX could operate in and out of them over distances of 400 nmi to 1,650 nmi.

Average regional flights were in fact less than 400 nmi, while the 1,650 nmi capability would be more than sufficient for services between Scandinavia and the Iberian Peninsula.

There is a tailpiece: The RJX made a stylish and conspicuously quiet display and fly-in for 200 BAE and Honeywell customers, suppliers and media at Duxford in the UK, where in what now seems the fashion, it basked in floodlights and dance music and to the tinkling knives and forks of its admirers.