Originally Posted by
dereknf
I remember the RJX/ARA being spoken about around the time ARA was started but the RJX never got a type certificate and support for what became a unique airframe would have been difficult. What would have been much more realistic would have been to make the ARA from one of the last RJ100 airframes.
Having spent so much time in G-LUXE, it's nice to see it being used fruitfully and the whole reason for BAe's proposal to FAAM in the late 1990s was to use airframe; otherwise it was being scrapped.
It is certainly doing excellent work and everybody who worked on her should be very proud of that. But given that the ARA ended up with one-off engines, an uprated pressure hull , a changed external shape and its own type certificate, it's a moot point whether there was any real benefit in using the old 3001 airframe.
G