Stretching airliners
 

I was more than surprised to note the prototype BAe 146 G-LUXE flying the other day.

When it had finished being the prototype 146-100, it was sliced up, had bits inserted and was fastened back together again to make the prototype 146-300.

I can only think of the 1-11 that had previously been literally stretched - were there others?

Not exactly an airliner; but all the stretched RAF C-130K examples (Hercules C3?) were made that way from the original C1. All done, I think, by Marshalls at Cambridge.

Stretch
 

The DC8-63 a stretch too far?
757-300 ditto

I can't think of any other airliners either (which is not to say that there haven't been any).

I suspect that for most types, by the time the manufacturer starts to think of a stretched version there is enough in-service experience to allow them to build the first one as a production airframe, without the need to start cutting at the original prototype.

As far as non-airliner types are concerned, another good example of phyically inserting plugs is also a Lockheed product, the C-141A to C-141B conversion programme.

USAF C-141s were all stretched as well.

Not a stretch, but one of Dan-Air's 727s had a different tail grafted on by American Jet Industries.

The prototype Super Constellation was converted from a standard model by inserting the longer fuselage section.

The conversion of a fleet is also interesting.

Wasn't the Saunders ST27 stretched from a normal size DH Heron ?

Indeed it was, an 8' 6" stretch if Wikipedia is to be believed.

I remember flying on an Air Atonabee/City Express example in the early/mid-80s.

Some good posts as to 'stretch' of an a/c. Due to constraints of length of airport runways, the longer the a/c length/weight I would presume would require a longer runway.

Gazing into my crystal ball I envisage future a/c will be wider and not longer, having said that, I might be wrong.

The F28 Fellowship prototype (PH JHG) was extended from 1000 to be first 2000 and subsequently also flew as 4000 and 6000 with wing/engine etc changes.

DC 9 grew from abt 105 ft ( -15 ) through to abt 135 ft ( -50 ) and if you count the development into the MD80 series it reached 155 ft ( MD90 )..... Talking length, by the way...

a340-600 is a big one

DC-3s and Venturas have also been stretched by companies such as Howard and Basler.

Kelowna put plugs in half-a-dozen ex-USN C-131s to produce the Convair 5800.

The ATL-98 Carvair was a stretched, lengthwise and hightwise DC-4....

Bombardier stretched the CRJ-700 prototype twice, first to become the -900 prototype and subsequently that for the -1000.

Loftleidir returned some of their in-service CL-44Ds to Canadair in the mid-60s to have them stretched into CL-44Js.

Fokker, on the other hand, shrank the prototype 100 to turn it into the Fokker 70.

I think the OP is referring to actual airframes that were cut apart and stretched, not model series that gradually grew in length..

As mentioned by DaveReidUK Loftleidir sent their CL-44s back to Canadair to be stretched from CL-44Ds to CL-44Js. There is an image of the two different lengths here:-

http://images.klassiker-der-luftfahr...pg.4095706.jpg

and an image of one being cut apart here:

http://www.cl44.com/cl44/images/TFLLGx4.jpg

The DC8-63 wasn't a stretch, it was a re-engined DC8-62, I think you're thinking of the DC8-72 & DC8-73 which were stretches of the latter

Several 747-200Bs were sent back to Everett to have the -300's stretched upper-deck fitted. 10% more seats for 2% more weight.

KLM were a big operator, also JAL and UTA. They remained -200s on the type cert, not -300, and were very confusing for spotters...