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Thread: BAE / AVRO 146
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Old 22nd Sep 2022, 05:47
  #110 (permalink)  
WHBM
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
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Originally Posted by LynxDriver
Didn't Sud Aviation use the basic Comet nose design for the Caravelle?
De Havilland actually designed and built the Caravelle nose section under subcontract, and shipped them over to Toulouse for assembly.

There was an unkind rumour that they just sawed the nose sections off the abandoned Comet 1 aircraft laying around by the late 1950s !

Apart from these fuselage sections, and the Rolls-Royce engines, there was contribution from the UK industry for instruments and fitout, etc. The UK component supply industry offerings were much greater than France in the 1950s.

The Comet/Caravelle flight deck windshield design was one of the things rejected by the FAA in the USA when the United Airlines order was made, and flight decks of the Caravelle 6R and later types can be seen to have larger windows, although the earlier Caravelle III type also continued in production to the end of the 1960s for those carriers like Air France/Air Inter who had existing fleets of them. No Comets were ever certified commercially in the USA.

Back to the 146, and the well-regarded landing gear design is apparently pretty much based on that of the Comet. I don't know about whether the Trident, which came from Hatfield between the two, was also similar, or indeed whether any other 146 elements came from the Trident.

Last 146 (actually an Avro RJ) I rode in was May 2019, Jota Aviation, standing in for a BA flight on Dublin to London City. I presume it will be the last British-built airliner I ever use.

Last edited by WHBM; 22nd Sep 2022 at 05:57.
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