In my short, very short, career with an airline based in SEN and run by a man, a fully qualified engineer, who did not do well at charm school, I was sent to Hatfield to talk to them, run the numbers and generally assess the BAe 146's suitability, as a replacement for Heralds in the ACMI business the airline specialised in at the time.
This was well before its first flight in September 1981.
I did that, and composed a thoughtful report, summarising the pros and cons as they would affect the profits it could make, blah blah. I added at the end that a useful and very beneficial feature was that you could stow a complete engine in the hold to minimise the problems of having to change one away from base.
He scanned through the report, and got to the bit at the end.
"You f*****g plonker", he said, "That's because it's the only engine they can use, it's a f*****g chopper engine, and they know it'll need changing a lot".
Shortly after that he went to LHR in his Cessna to call in a favour from an old acquaintance and buy instead the BA Viscount fleet, then at Rhoose, as a better commercial bet. Which it was at the price he paid.
Last edited by old,not bold; 14th Aug 2015 at 20:05.