BAE Systems

As of October 2026 – A small jet with a high-set wing, four engines and a tail that opens like a clamshell on landing: if you get that in your viewfinder, you have caught a piece of British aviation history. The BAe 146 and its successor, the Avro RJ, come from the company that is now called BAE Systems. The group stopped building airliners long ago, but it is behind the Red Arrows’ Hawk, is the British partner on the Eurofighter and builds assemblies for the F-35. Here you will learn where BAE comes from, which types you can trace to the group and where you can still see them today.

From British Aerospace to BAE Systems

The story of BAE Systems begins with an act of law. On April 29, 1977, the British government used the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act to merge four companies into one state-owned group: the British Aircraft Corporation, Hawker Siddeley Aviation, Hawker Siddeley Dynamics and Scottish Aviation. The new company was called British Aerospace, BAe for short. Those names brought together an enormous legacy – from Concorde to the Harrier to the Hawk trainer, which was just being tested at the time.

In 1979, British Aerospace joined the Airbus consortium and took a 20 percent stake. The wings of the Airbus jets came from British plants. Privatization ran in parallel: in February 1981, a good half of the shares went public, and in May 1985 the rest. The state kept a so-called golden share, which gives it a say in important decisions.

In the 1980s and 1990s, BAe was a mixed bag: regional aircraft, business jets, combat aircraft, guided missiles – and between 1988 and 1994 even the carmaker Rover. Then consolidation began. In 1993 the business jet division went to Raytheon, and on November 30, 1999, British Aerospace took over the defense electronics of Marconi Electronic Systems. The new company called itself BAE Systems. The group took its last big step away from airliner manufacturing in October 2006 by selling its Airbus stake.

Today, BAE Systems is one of the largest defense groups in the world, headquartered in London. It has been led by Charles Woodburn since 2017, and Cressida Hogg has chaired the board since 2023. Revenue in 2025 was around 28.3 billion pounds, the vast majority of it from the military business. A significant portion comes from the US, where the subsidiary BAE Systems Inc. supplies electronics and avionics, among other things.

The civil legacy: types you can trace to BAE

For airliner spotters, BAE Systems is mainly a name in the family tree. The following types come from British Aerospace or its predecessors and now fall under the BAE Systems umbrella. All are out of production, but some still fly.

Then there are predecessor types that BAE merely inherited: the BAC One-Eleven of the British Aircraft Corporation, the Trident and the HS 748 from Hawker Siddeley, and of course the Concorde, whose British partner was BAC. After the sale to Raytheon, the BAe 125 lives on as the Hawker 800XP.

The Jumbolino: BAe 146 and Avro RJ

The BAe 146 is the aircraft that stands for BAE Systems in the eyes of most spotters. The idea dates back to Hawker Siddeley, which started the project in 1973 as the HS.146 but shelved it again in 1974. British Aerospace pulled it out of the drawer in 1978. The prototype took off on September 3, 1981, in Hatfield, north of London, and in May 1983 the British airline Dan-Air flew its first passengers – including between London Gatwick and Bern.

The concept was unusual: a short jet for roughly 70 to 100 passengers, built for short runways, steep approaches and quiet operation. For that, the 146 got a high-set wing, a T-tail and no fewer than four small Lycoming ALF 502 turbofans. There is no thrust reverser – instead, the tail cone opens into a large airbrake, assisted by spoilers on the upper wing surface. The manufacturer marketed the quiet aircraft as the “Whisperjet”; in Switzerland, the nickname Jumbolino later caught on.

The design made the 146 the ideal aircraft for difficult airports. In 1987 it was chosen to open jet operations at London City Airport; for a long time it was one of the very few jets allowed to fly the steep approach into the Docklands. Optional equipment even allowed landings on unpaved runways.

Avro RJ: the second generation

In the early 1990s, British Aerospace revised the family and gave it a name with a long tradition: Avro. The Avro RJ got the further-developed LF 507 engines with digital control and a modernized cockpit; fuselage and wing stayed the same. The launch customer of the RJ85 was Swiss airline Crossair, which took delivery of its first aircraft on April 23, 1993. The Avro RJs were built at the Woodford plant near Manchester.

A further modernized RJX did fly, but BAE halted the program in November 2001 after three aircraft had been built. The last Avro RJs were delivered at the end of 2003. Depending on how you count, the whole family came to just under 400 aircraft.

Where the Jumbolino flew in Central Europe

In the DACH region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland), the Jumbolino was an everyday sight for decades. Crossair and later Swiss operated Avro RJs from Zurich and Basel, Lufthansa CityLine flew RJ85s from Munich, among other airports, and in Belgium Avros were part of the picture at Brussels Airlines. Lufthansa CityLine said goodbye to its last aircraft in 2012, and Swiss and Brussels Airlines followed in 2017. Companies like CityJet and Braathens Regional have also given up their Avros by now.

With the Royal Air Force, the BAe 146 flew as a VIP transport in No. 32 (The Royal) Squadron from 1986 to 2022. Today you find the family mainly outside Europe, for example at Mahan Air, as a freighter or as a converted firefighting aircraft in North America, where companies like Conair and Neptune Aviation use 146s and RJ85s as air tankers. How the retreat of the four-engine jets is playing out overall is described in the article The end of the four-engine jets.

Jetstream and ATP: the turboprops

Less glamorous, but also part of the legacy, are the turboprops. The Jetstream goes back to Handley Page and was later built on by Scottish Aviation and British Aerospace at Prestwick. The Jetstream 31/32 was a typical feeder in the 1980s and 1990s with around 19 seats, and the larger Jetstream 41 offered about 30. You recognize both by the slim, low-set wing and the cruciform tail.

The BAe ATP is a further development of the HS 748 for roughly 60 to 70 passengers and first flew in 1986. It sold only modestly and was overshadowed by ATR and Fokker. Some aircraft kept flying as freighters for a long time – today they are rare sightings. How to rate a catch like that is shown in the article How rare is my sighting?.

The Hawk: trainer and Red Arrows aircraft

No BAE aircraft is as well known to airshow visitors as the Hawk. The prototype of the two-seat jet trainer took off on August 21, 1974, at Dunsfold, still under Hawker Siddeley. At the end of 1976, the Hawk T1 entered service with the Royal Air Force. It is powered by a single Adour engine from Rolls-Royce and Turbomeca. The Red Arrows have flown the Hawk since the end of the 1970s – the red-painted aircraft remain the best-known face of the type.

The Hawk became an export success: in total, more than 1,000 were built for 18 operators. Finland ordered Hawks in the late 1970s, most of them built under license, and later bought 18 used aircraft from Switzerland, where the Hawk Mk 66 flew in air force training from 1990 to 2002. For the US Navy, the T-45 Goshawk was developed as a carrier-capable derivative. In India, Hindustan Aeronautics builds the Hawk under license; British production at Brough ended in 2020.

At the RAF itself, the older T1 has almost disappeared: in March 2022, the air force retired all T1s outside the Red Arrows. The more modern Hawk T2 with a glass cockpit, delivered from 2009, flies in training.

Tornado, Eurofighter and F-35

The military side is the core business of BAE Systems today – and here, too, there is plenty for you to see as a spotter. Almost all the big programs are international joint projects in which BAE represents the British side.

The Panavia Tornado was developed from 1969 together with Germany and Italy; the British partner was the British Aircraft Corporation, later British Aerospace. The Tornado is retired from the RAF but still flies in Germany – one more reason to make use of the remaining years.

On the Eurofighter Typhoon, BAE is one of the three partner companies of Eurofighter Jagdflugzeug GmbH, alongside Airbus and Leonardo. BAE supplies the front fuselage section with the canards, the canopy, the dorsal area and the vertical stabilizer, among other parts. The British prototype flew in 1994 at Warton, where the Royal Air Force Typhoons are still assembled today. The article Spotting Eurofighters in Germany shows where to see the German aircraft best.

On the F-35 Lightning II from Lockheed Martin, BAE is an important supplier: at the Samlesbury plant, fuselage assemblies for the aircraft are built. And the future already has a name: in the GCAP program, BAE is working with Leonardo and Japanese partners on a next-generation fighter that, according to British planning, will succeed the Typhoon from the mid-2030s.

Where to see BAE aircraft today

Airshows are the best stage. The Red Arrows perform at many events in the UK and regularly on the Continent as well. A must-attend date is the Royal International Air Tattoo in Fairford, where Hawks, Typhoons and F-35s often fly on the same weekend. At the Farnborough International Airshow, BAE shows its current programs as an exhibitor. The article Airshows in Europe gives an overview of worthwhile dates.

In everyday operations, you need patience and the right vantage point. At the official RAF Coningsby viewing area in Lincolnshire, you see Royal Air Force Typhoons up close. In the Welsh Mach Loop, military jets fly low through the valleys – with a bit of luck, also Hawks from training.

For history, museums are the place to go. At Aerospace Bristol at the former factory airfield in Filton stands the last Concorde built, and the spot in Filton combines the museum and the airfield’s history. At the Brooklands Museum southwest of London, you experience the history of the Vickers and BAC works, and the Imperial War Museum Duxford shows British military and civil aircraft from many decades. If you want to follow the trail to Hatfield, where the first 146s were built, visit the de Havilland Aircraft Museum with its collection from the Hatfield tradition.

Registrations and logbook

British civil aircraft carry registrations starting with G-, and older BAe 146s and Jetstreams are easy to trace in the British register that way. The article British G- registrations explains how this works. On RAF aircraft, you find a serial number of two letters and three digits on the fuselage instead.

For your collection, it pays to note type codes consistently: B461, B462 and B463 for the BAe 146, RJ70, RJ85 and RJ1H for the Avro RJ. That way you can later see at a glance which variants you are still missing. The article Identifying regional jets also shows how to tell small jets of this era apart cleanly. If you hunt rare types deliberately, you will find strategies in the article Spotting rare aircraft.

Conclusion

For spotters, BAE Systems is a group with two faces. On one side stands a defense giant whose current products – Typhoon, F-35 assemblies, GCAP – you see mainly at military airfields and airshows. On the other side stands the civil legacy of British Aerospace with the Jumbolino as its star: four engines, high wing, clamshell tail – an aircraft everyone recognizes instantly and that has become a rarity in Europe.

If you still want the family in your logbook, you shouldn’t wait too long. And anyone who has seen the Red Arrows’ Hawk live once understands why this trainer has been part of British aviation for almost five decades.