BAe 146 / Avro RJ85

Updated: October 2026 – A small jet floats in, the wing sits on top of the fuselage, four engines hang beneath it, and just before touchdown the tail opens like a clamshell: that is a BAe 146 or Avro RJ. In the 1990s and 2000s the RJ85 was an everyday sight in Zurich, Munich, Cologne/Bonn and Brussels – today it is a genuine rarity for spotters in Central Europe. Here you will learn how to recognize it, how to tell the variants apart and where you still have a chance of a sighting.

What is the Avro RJ85?

The Avro RJ85 is the revised version of the BAe 146-200, a four-engine regional jet from Britain. British Aerospace developed the 146 in the late 1970s for short routes and small airports. The prototype – a 146-100 – made its first flight on September 3, 1981, and in May 1983 the type entered scheduled service with Dan-Air. Because the four engines were remarkably quiet compared with older jets, the manufacturer promoted the aircraft as the “Whisperjet.”

In the early 1990s British Aerospace thoroughly refreshed the series and marketed it under the traditional name Avro. The Avro RJ (for “Regional Jet”) received the further-developed LF 507 engines (now supported by Honeywell) instead of the ALF 502 and a modernized cockpit. Fuselage and wing remained unchanged. The launch customer for the RJ85 was Swiss Crossair, which took delivery of its first aircraft on April 23, 1993. The Avro RJs were built at Woodford near Manchester, while the early 146s still came from Hatfield, north of London.

Production ran until 2003. Depending on how you count, the whole family added up to just under 400 aircraft, about 170 of them Avro RJs. A further modernized version called the RJX did fly, but it was cancelled in November 2001 before entering series production. British Aerospace became part of BAE Systems in 1999, which is why the type is listed under that name today.

The family at a glance: 146 and RJ

The BAe 146 came in three fuselage lengths. Each one received a new designation during the Avro revision that roughly indicates the typical seat count. Depending on the cabin layout, considerably more passengers fit in as well. The RJ85 is the middle model.

BAe 146 version	Avro version	ICAO code	Length	Seats according to name
146-100	RJ70	B461 / RJ70	approx. 26.2 m	around 70
146-200	RJ85	B462 / RJ85	approx. 28.6 m	around 85
146-300	RJ100	B463 / RJ1H	approx. 31.0 m	around 100

An even longer RJ115 existed on paper but was never built. Externally, a 146-200 and an RJ85 are almost impossible to tell apart, because the differences lie mainly in the engines and cockpit. For a reliable identification you therefore need the registration – how to read it and look it up is explained in the guide Understanding aircraft registrations.

How to spot the Jumbolino instantly

Hardly any airliner is as easy to identify as the 146 family. No other regional jet combines these three features.

A few more details help on a second look: the main landing gear retracts into fairings on the side of the fuselage, because there is no room for it in the high-mounted wing. There is no thrust reverser system – braking is done with the tail brake and spoilers across the whole width of the wing.

Risk of confusion? Hardly – but here is how to rule things out

The 146 family can only really be mixed up with something else at long distance or in backlight, when you cannot count the engines. The finder helps you rule out the other small jets of the same era.

If you are still unsure which features count first when identifying a type, the introduction Aircraft type recognition for beginners will help.

The Jumbolino in Germany, Austria and Switzerland

Hardly any place was as closely tied to the Avro RJ as Zurich. Crossair was not only the launch customer of the RJ85 but also built up a large Avro fleet that later passed to Swiss. The nickname “Jumbolino” also took hold in Switzerland. Alongside four RJ85s from Crossair days, Swiss mainly operated the longer RJ100. The RJ85s disappeared there as early as around 2007, and the last RJ100 landed in Zurich in August 2017 after a short flight from Geneva. The Avros were replaced by the former Bombardier CSeries, now the Airbus A220, with which Swiss still shapes Zurich Airport today.

In Germany it was mainly Lufthansa CityLine that flew the RJ85, from 1994 on behalf of Lufthansa. In 2007 Lufthansa ordered Embraer E-Jets and CRJ900s to replace the four-engine jets. The last CityLine RJ85 took off on August 27, 2012 as LH1985 from Cologne/Bonn Airport. That ended the Avro chapter in the Lufthansa Group for Germany.

In Brussels, too, the Avros were regulars for years: Brussels Airlines flew the RJ85 and RJ100. An Airbus order from 2011 sped up the replacement of the RJ85 by A320-family aircraft, and according to the airline’s chronicle the farewell to the RJ100 was complete by the end of 2017 at the latest. As one of the last major European operators, the Swedish airline Braathens (brand BRA) gave up its Avros in March 2020.

Where you can still see an RJ85 today

As of October 2026, the RJ85 plays practically no role in European scheduled service anymore. As early as 2020, industry counts showed considerably more 146-family aircraft in storage than in active service. It is still worth keeping your eyes open:

The British Royal Air Force also retired its BAe 146 VIP and transport aircraft in 2022. How to track down government and state aircraft in general is covered in the article Spotting government aircraft.

The most important toolkit for hunting the RJ85 is flight tracking. Filter your tracking app for the type codes RJ85, B462 and – for the sisters – RJ70, RJ1H and B463. How ADS-B data works and why some flights are missing from it is explained in the guide Flight tracking with ADS-B. Which app is best suited is shown in the flight tracker app comparison.

Retired aircraft often end up in storage areas in dry regions. What these parking sites are about and where you can legally take a look at them is covered in Aircraft graveyards and boneyards. A broader overview of how to track down rarities can be found in Spotting rare aircraft.

Photo tips for the Jumbolino

When an RJ85 comes into your viewfinder, it is usually a one-time opportunity. A few points will help you make the most of it.

How to plan the sun position for your vantage point is explained in the article Planning the sun position for your photo spot. Which direction aircraft land from depends on the runway direction in use – more on this in Understanding runway direction in use at airports. And before you set up at a fence, it is worth reading Is plane spotting allowed?.

Technical deep dive: why four engines?

Four engines for an aircraft with around 100 seats seem unusual from today’s perspective. The designers wanted a jet that could handle short runways and steep approaches while staying quiet. The small turbofans together delivered enough thrust for short takeoffs, while the high wing with large flaps allowed slow approach speeds. That let the 146 family serve London’s city-center airport, London City, with its steep approach for years – for some time the only conventional jet there.

The price: four engines mean more maintenance and more fuel burn than two modern large ones. That is exactly why twinjets such as the Embraer E190, the E195 and the A220 gradually replaced the Avros. For spotters the result is a type landscape in which the Jumbolino becomes ever more exotic – and every sighting all the more valuable.

If you want to log your sightings so that even the rare encounters are not lost, you will find tips in the article Documenting sightings in a logbook.

Conclusion

The Avro RJ85 is one of the few aircraft types you can identify in seconds: high wing, four engines, T-tail, plus the hinged tail brake. Finding one at all is harder today. After the farewells at Lufthansa CityLine, Swiss, Brussels Airlines and Braathens, the Jumbolino remains a visitor on ferry flights and special flights in Central Europe, while it still works as a firefighting aircraft in North America and in Australia.