Hawker Siddeley Trident

Updated: October 2026 – Three engines at the rear, a high T-tail and a nose gear that somehow sits crooked under the nose: if you are standing in front of a jet like that in a museum, you are very likely looking at a Hawker Siddeley Trident. In the 1960s and 1970s, the British three-engine jet was the backbone of BEA’s European short-haul network – and the first airliner to land automatically in scheduled service with passengers. Here you learn where the Trident comes from, how to tell it from the Boeing 727 and Tu-154, and where you can still see it today.

What is the Hawker Siddeley Trident?

The Trident is a three-engine narrowbody jet for short and medium routes of British production. Its three Rolls-Royce Spey engines sit at the rear, and the horizontal stabilizer sits on top of the tail fin. Three people worked on the flight deck: captain, copilot and flight engineer. Depending on the version, the Trident carried roughly 100 to up to 180 passengers.

It was built between 1962 and 1978, with 117 aircraft in five versions in total. The first flight of G-ARPA took place on January 9, 1962 at Hatfield north of London, and on April 1, 1964 the type entered scheduled service with British European Airways – only about two months after the Boeing 727. The Trident was very fast for its time: at introduction its cruise speed was Mach 0.88, and the wing was strongly swept at 35 degrees.

Today the Trident is a historic aircraft. British Airways retired the last aircraft on December 31, 1985, and in China they flew until 1995. So you will no longer spot an active Trident – but you can spot some well-preserved museum examples.

From the DH.121 to the Trident: a story with a kink

The Trident begins as a project of de Havilland, the maker of the Comet, the world’s first jet airliner. In the mid-1950s BEA formulated its requirements for a second-generation short-haul jet, and in 1957 de Havilland answered with the DH.121 design. It was originally planned larger: with more powerful Rolls-Royce Medway engines, a good 110 seats in two classes and considerably more range.

In 1959 came the decisive cut. BEA feared slower passenger growth and overcapacity and demanded a smaller aircraft. De Havilland shrank the design: lower takeoff weight, less than half the range, a shorter fuselage, a smaller wing and, for power, the weaker Rolls-Royce Spey. In August 1959 BEA ordered 24 aircraft, and in September 1960 the name Trident was announced at the Farnborough air show.

In the same period the British aviation industry reorganized. Hawker Siddeley took over de Havilland, and the DH.121 became the HS.121 Trident. Hawker Siddeley later merged into British Aerospace, whose successor today is BAE Systems. The downsizing suited BEA but reduced the chances with other airlines. With the 727-100, Boeing brought a larger three-engine jet with a comparable concept to market and won most of the export customers. In the end it is 117 Tridents against 1,832 Boeing 727s.

Autoland: the Trident lands by itself

When the Trident turns up in aviation history books, it is mostly because of its automatic landing. BEA flew a lot in London, where fog regularly shut down operations in winter. The Trident therefore received an autoland system from Smiths Aircraft Instruments, which could handle approach, flare, touchdown and rollout without pilot input. The avionics were designed with multiple redundancy so that a single fault would not become a problem.

On June 10, 1965 it was time: Trident 1C G-ARPR flew as BE343 from Paris Le Bourget to London Heathrow and touched down there automatically with passengers on board. It was the first automatic landing of an airliner in scheduled service. On November 4, 1966 the first true blind landing in passenger service followed. The system was developed further in the following years and gradually allowed landings in ever lower visibility.

The versions at a glance

The Trident grew from version to version: more thrust, more fuel, more seats. The basic shape stayed the same.

Version	Built	Special features
Trident 1C	24	Original version for BEA, typically about 100 seats, Spey 505
Trident 1E	15	More powerful engines, larger wing, export version
Trident 2E	50	More range, leading-edge slats, extended wingtips, Spey 512
Trident 3B	26	About 5 m longer, up to 180 seats, additional RB.162 booster
Super Trident 3B	2	Long-range version of the 3B for China

The Trident 1E went to export customers such as Kuwait Airways, Iraqi Airways, Pakistan International Airlines and Air Ceylon as well as to the British airlines Channel Airways and BKS/Northeast. The Trident 2E was the most-built version: BEA took 15 aircraft, Cyprus Airways two and the Chinese CAAC a total of 33.

The Trident 3B is the most distinctive version. BEA needed more capacity for its busiest routes, so Hawker Siddeley stretched the fuselage by about five meters. For takeoff, the power of the three Speys was then no longer enough. The solution was unusual: a small Rolls-Royce RB.162 in the tail, with its own air intake behind movable flaps, provided extra takeoff thrust when needed. The 3B first flew on December 11, 1969 and entered service on April 1, 1971.

How to recognize the Trident

In a museum or on old photos, the Trident is quickly identified with a little practice. These observations help you.

The proportions help too. At about 35 meters, the Trident 1C is clearly shorter than a Boeing 727-200 at nearly 47 meters and looks slimmer overall. Even the stretched 3B, at about 40 meters, remains noticeably shorter than the 727-200. In the end the registration confirms the type. BEA’s Tridents carried British registrations in the blocks G-ARP…, G-AVF… and G-AWZ… – you can read how the British system is built in the post on British G registrations.

Trident, Boeing 727 or Tu-154?

The three classic rear-engine jets are easily confused, especially on old photos without a clearly legible registration.

Feature	Trident	Boeing 727	Tupolev Tu-154
Engines at the rear	3 (3B: 3 + booster)	3	3
Nose gear	offset to the left	centered	centered
Main gear	4 tires side by side	2 tires	bogie with 6 wheels
Gear pods on the wing	no	no	yes, prominent
Length	approx. 35–40 m	approx. 41–47 m	considerably longer
Origin	Great Britain	USA	Soviet Union

You recognize the Tupolev Tu-154 at once by the long fairings behind the wing into which its main gear retracts. With the 727 it is harder: here the landing gear and fuselage length help most. Two British contemporaries also carry their engines at the rear, though not three: the smaller BAC One-Eleven has two, the long-range Vickers VC10 four engines in pairs.

You will find more tips on telling older types apart in photos and collections in the guide Recognizing vintage aircraft in the sky.

Who flew the Trident

The main customer was British European Airways. It operated all the main versions from 1C to 3B, mainly from London Heathrow on domestic and European routes. After the merger of BEA and BOAC in 1974, British Airways took over the fleet and flew it until the end of 1985.

The second-largest operator was the Chinese CAAC. In 1970 it took over four used Trident 1Es from PIA, followed by 33 new Trident 2Es and the two Super Trident 3Bs. In total, well over 35 Tridents ended up in China, where the type flew longer than anywhere else: service there only ended in 1995.

Smaller fleets were operated by Kuwait Airways, Iraqi Airways, PIA, Air Ceylon, Channel Airways, BKS/Northeast and Cyprus Airways. A Cyprus Airways Trident 2E was damaged at Nicosia Airport during the fighting on Cyprus in 1974 and has stood in the UN buffer zone ever since.

Accidents that changed aviation

The Trident’s history also includes serious accidents. On June 3, 1966, G-ARPY crashed during a test flight near Felthorpe after entering what is known as a deep stall – an aerodynamic stall from which T-tail aircraft can hardly recover. All four crew members were killed.

The most serious accident occurred on June 18, 1972: Trident 1C G-ARPI, as BEA Flight 548, also entered a deep stall shortly after takeoff from Heathrow and crashed near Staines. All 118 people on board died. The investigation cited, among other things, the premature retraction of the leading-edge flaps and the switching off of the stall protection. One important consequence: in Great Britain, cockpit voice recorders became mandatory for larger airliners from 1973.

Where you can see the Trident today

The Trident no longer flies, but several museums preserve examples or parts of them. As of October 2026, these are the most important places to go:

Place	Exhibit	Note
IWM Duxford (England)	Trident 2E G-AVFB in BEA colors	Complete aircraft
Runway Visitor Park, Manchester	Trident 3B G-AWZK in BEA colors	Brought from Heathrow in 2005
East Fortune (Scotland)	Trident 1C G-ARPH	Nose section
de Havilland Aircraft Museum (London Colney)	Parts of a 2E and 3B	Forward fuselage section and nose
Beijing	several former CAAC and military Tridents	in various museums

At the Imperial War Museum Duxford you can combine the visit with an air show – the post on the Duxford air shows shows you when that is worthwhile. As a photo location, Duxford airfield is a classic anyway.

At Manchester Airport the Trident 3B stands in the Runway Visitor Park. There you have the advantage of hardly having to walk between the museum visit and current flight operations. More on spotting there is in the Manchester guide.

The nose section in Scotland belongs to the National Museum of Flight East Fortune, where other British airliners are also on display. And at the de Havilland Aircraft Museum the circle closes with the original manufacturer.

Photo tips for museum Tridents

Photographing a Trident in a museum is different from an approach shot – the aircraft does not run away from you, but you fight barriers, hall lighting and other visitors.

You can gauge how rare a sighting is compared with others using the post How rare is my sighting?. And if you are interested in the prehistory of British jets, the article on the de Havilland Comet is the right starting point.

Conclusion

The Trident is one of those aircraft whose importance is greater than its numbers. Commercially it lost clearly to the Boeing 727; technically, with the first automatic landing in scheduled service, it set a milestone from which every fog approach still benefits today. If you want to see one, go to Duxford, Manchester or one of the museums with preserved nose sections – and look there for the crooked nose gear.