Profiles and Logos
The British Aircraft Corporation One-Eleven, also known as the BAC 1-11 was a British short range jetliner that was used throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The 1-11 started life as a project by Hunting Aircraft and was continued by BAC when Hunting and other companies merged to form BAC in 1960. The aircraft was intended to replace short range turboprops and entered the market before its main rival the Douglas DC-9. Unlike many British aircraft designs of the period, the 1-11 was not designed to meet the specific needs of BEA and BOAC but to needs or worldwide airlines. The project was officially launched in 1961 with the aircraft to be powered by 2 x Rolls-Royce Spey engines. The first prototype rolled out on 28th July 1963 and first flew on 20th August of the same year.
The prototype crashed on 22th October during stall testing, the investigation leading to the discovery of “deep stall” where the turbulent airflow from the stalled wing masks the elevator in a stall leading to loss of control and the inability to recover from the stall. This led to the introduction of stick shakers and stick pushers which are fitted to modern airliners. The first revenue flight was on 9th April 1965.
In 1967 a stretched aircraft was launched, the -500 also known as the Super One-Eleven, the fuselage being 4.11m ( 13ft 6in) longer and being able to seat 119 passengers, up from the originals 89. The aircraft remained in operation in the 1990’s often having been fitted with “hush kits” to reduce the noise and meet stricter noise regulations, however even stricter noise restrictions were introduced in 2003 leading to the withdrawal from service .