Originally Posted by
WHBM
This actually arose in an odd way. The US restriction on maximum weight (I forget which one) for two crew aircraft in the mid-1960s was actually nothing to do with prejudice against the One-Eleven, as I have occasionally seen written, but was done to stop a practice which seemed to be developing with the Douglas DC-6B, a complex 1950s 4-engined piston aircraft, which secondary operators buying older ones were starting to reconfigure without a flight engineer. It seemed there was nothing previously to stop this, so the FAA put in this restriction on weight, actually before the One-Eleven came along.
The first US operators of the One-Eleven took the -200 series, which was within the limit. American Airlines wanted the better capability of the -300 series, which had just breached the limit, so BAC further developed this as the -400 series, which reduced weight by eliminating some items (I think the centre fuel tank was one), restricting range, but American didn't mind that, as they really didn't want to use it on sectors over 1,000 nm. Once the US restriction was relaxed the two types' specification did converge, but remained as separate variants for their remaining lives.
Hi there WH,
Puzzling that Autair, Bavaria Flug, Channel Airways, and even TAE (all IT Charter airlines flying from Northern Europe down to the Med and beyond, you would think be operating at Max weights with high-density 84-89-99 seats) would all go for the -400 series>?
British Eagle and Laker went for the -300 series, that you say has higher weights and more fuel.