BAe 146 - was it a commercial success?

[Allan Lupton]

Originally Posted by DaveReidUK

The conventional wisdom at the time was that the choice of 4 ALF502s resulted mostly from there not being a suitable engine in those days that would have powered a twin.

Yes, as someone who was quite close to the decision process at the time I can endorse that.
What's more the use of four engines gave us a better integrity of systems than a twin could have and the good field performance we wanted was easier to achieve. i.e. we took full advantage of having four engines, once we had decided that was the way we'd go.
Before someone tries to convince us that the RR Tay was an engine suitable for a twin, the 146 was initially launched some 10+ years before the Tay first ran in 1984 - and even after the delayed re-launch we demonstrated a 146 all the way from home to New Zealand and back in 1982!