BAe 146-100

Updated: October 2026 – Short, stubby, wing on top, four engines underneath and a tail that opens like a clamshell on landing: that is the BAe 146-100, the original version of the family from which the famous Jumbolino later emerged. It first flew in 1981, was the British Royal Family’s transport aircraft for decades and is now one of the rarest variants in the sky. Here you’ll learn how to recognize it, how to tell it from its longer sisters and where you can still get to see one at all.

What is the BAe 146-100?

The BAe 146-100 is the first and shortest version of the four-engine BAe 146 regional jet. The idea dates back to the Hawker Siddeley era: the HS.146 project was launched in 1973 but shelved after the oil crisis. Only in 1978 did the newly formed British Aerospace take the project out of the drawer again. The aim was a jet for short routes and small airports that is quiet, handles short runways and gets by with little ground support.

The prototype – a 146-100 with the registration G-SSSH – took off for the first time on September 3, 1981. British type certification followed on February 8, 1983. The launch customer was the British charter and scheduled airline Dan-Air, which operated the first scheduled flight from London Gatwick to Bern in May 1983. The early 146 was built at the Hatfield plant north of London, a site with a long tradition that originally belonged to de Havilland. Many components came from suppliers: the wings were supplied by Textron from the USA, the horizontal stabilizer and rudder by Saab-Scania from Sweden.

Because the four small Lycoming engines were remarkably quiet for a jet of that era, British Aerospace marketed the family as the “Whisperjet”. The manufacturer was absorbed into BAE Systems in 1999, which is why we list the type under that name today.

The family at a glance

The 146 came in three fuselage lengths. In the early 1990s, each of them was modernized and remarketed as the Avro RJ. The first RJ70s, the modernized edition of the short 146-100, were delivered in late 1993.

BAe 146 version	Avro successor	ICAO code	Length
146-100	RJ70	B461 / RJ70	approx. 26.2 m
146-200	RJ85	B462 / RJ85	approx. 28.6 m
146-300	RJ100	B463 / RJ1H	approx. 31.0 m

Wing, tail and the basic concept are the same on all variants. The difference between a 146-100 and an RJ70 lies mainly in the engines (more on that in the guide Recognizing engines): the RJ got the further-developed LF 507 with digital engine control and a cockpit with modern electronics. From the outside you see almost none of this.

Besides the passenger version, there were also cargo derivatives. A version that could be converted quickly between passenger and cargo operation was called the 146-100QC (Quick Change). Based on the freighter version, a military demonstrator with a side cargo door was also built, the 146STA – it was shown at the 1989 Paris Air Show, among other places, but no orders followed.

How to recognize the 146-100

You identify the family itself in seconds. The harder question is which length you are looking at. Proceed in three steps:

On the 146-200 and the RJ85, the fuselage visibly extends farther beyond the wing, and the 146-300 already looks almost slender. If you count the windows ahead of and behind the wing in a photo and compare with a reference picture, you quickly get an estimate. If you want to sharpen your method in general, read the introduction Recognizing aircraft types for beginners.

The 146-100 can hardly be confused with other types – an overview of the competition is given in Recognizing regional jets. A small British jet with a T-tail from the same era is the BAC One-Eleven – but it has a low-set wing and only two engines at the tail. It is similar with the Fokker 70, which is comparable in size and seat count but also carries two rear engines.

The 146-100 as the Royal Family’s aircraft

The best-known chapter of the 146-100 was written by the Royal Air Force. To find a successor for the propeller-driven Andovers of the Queen’s Flight, the RAF leased two BAe 146s for evaluation in 1983. The assessment was positive: from 1986, the Queen’s Flight took over 146-100s with a VIP cabin under the military designation BAe 146 CC2 – the first jets in the squadron’s history. In total, the unit flew three of these aircraft. The specially designed VIP cabin had room for 19 or 26 passengers, depending on the layout.

The aircraft were initially based at RAF Benson. On April 1, 1995, the Queen’s Flight merged into No. 32 Squadron, which has since flown as No. 32 (The Royal) Squadron from RAF Northolt in west London. The 146s moved with it. One of the three CC2s was sold in 2002 as surplus. From 2012, two former TNT cargo 146-200s were added, which were used as the BAe 146 C3, among other things in Afghanistan from 2013.

In February 2022, the British Ministry of Defence announced that it would replace the 146 fleet with two Dassault Falcon 900LX. In March 2022, the Royal 146s’ service ended after around 36 years. The two remaining CC2s remained available to the public: ZE701 went to the Imperial War Museum Duxford, ZE700 to the South Wales Aviation Museum in St Athan. The long career was not entirely free of incidents, by the way: on June 29, 1994, ZE700 ran off the end of the runway when landing on the Scottish island of Islay and was damaged.

How to track down government and state aircraft today – including the successors of the Royal 146s – is explained in the post Spotting government aircraft. Before you position yourself at a military airfield like Northolt, it is worth looking at the notes on photographing at military airfields.

Short runways, steep approaches: London City and Aspen

The 146 was designed for difficult airports from the start. The high wing with large flaps allows slow approaches, and the four engines deliver enough thrust for short takeoffs. According to type data, the 146-100 needs around 1,200 meters of takeoff distance at sea level under standard conditions, and a little less for landing – a good figure for a jet of its era.

That made the family the first choice for London City Airport in the Docklands. With its steep approach and short runway, it makes high demands. As early as 1987, the 146 was chosen to begin the first jet flights there; they became possible on a regular basis after the extended runway and a somewhat shallower approach angle entered service in 1992.

The short 146 also played to its strengths in the USA: Aspen Airways operated a 146-100 and so opened the first scheduled jet service to the ski resort of Aspen in Colorado, whose airport lies high in the Rocky Mountains. An example from a Chinese airline, B-2701 of China Northwest, now stands in the China Civil Aviation Museum in Beijing – a sign of how widespread the little 146 once was.

It is precisely this question of economics that has pushed four-engine aircraft out of every size class. The post The end of the four-engine jets sheds light on the bigger picture.

Where you can still see a 146-100 today

As of October 2026, the 146-100 has practically disappeared from European air traffic. Even its modernized sister, the RJ70, is a rarity. Your best chances:

For a trip to Duxford, a combination with one of the air shows is a good idea: the post IWM Duxford and its air shows helps you plan. If you want to visit several British collections in one go, the RAF Museum Cosford and the de Havilland Aircraft Museum near the old Hatfield site offer more worthwhile destinations.

For flying aircraft, flight tracking helps you: filter by the type codes B461 and RJ70. How to find a specific aircraft via its registration or hex code is shown in the guide Tracking an aircraft by registration. How special your sighting really is can be rated with Gauging the rarity of a sighting – a B461 will almost always land near the top.

Photo tips for the short 146

If you encounter a 146-100 in the air, it is usually a one-time opportunity. In a museum, on the other hand, you have time – use it for details.

How to plan in advance where the sun will be at the arrival time is explained in the post Planning the sun position for your photo spot. And if you want to identify historic types reliably in general, Recognizing vintage aircraft in the sky will help.

Technical detour: why four engines?

Four engines on an aircraft with around 70 to 82 seats seem almost absurd today. In the 1970s, however, there was no suitable, quiet mid-sized engine that would have made two engines possible for this concept. The Lycoming ALF 502s were small turbofans with a high bypass ratio – quiet and economical for their class, but too weak individually. So four of them went under the wing.

The high-mounted wing has practical reasons: the engines hang far above the ground and ingest less foreign debris on poor runways, and the cabin sits low and is easy to load. Because there is no room in the wing for the landing gear, it moves into fairings on the sides of the fuselage. And instead of thrust reversers, the clamshell tail cone and spoilers across the whole width of the wing do the braking – one reason the 146 stayed so quiet on landing.

For regional airlines, the advantage turned into a disadvantage over time: modern twinjets like the Embraer E190 or the Airbus A220 do the same job with half as many engines. For spotters, the 146-100 remains a piece of aviation history that can’t be confused with any other jet.

So that your rare encounters don’t get lost either, you will find practical tips in the post Documenting sightings in a logbook. An overview of more rarities is offered by Spotting rare aircraft.

Conclusion

The BAe 146-100 is the beginning of an unusual success story: a short, quiet four-engine jet that took off in 1981, entered service with Dan-Air in 1983, opened up London City to jets and flew the British Royal Family for around 36 years. You can recognize it by the high wing, four engines, T-tail and the especially short fuselage – you can be sure with the registration and the type code B461.