Planes that never were...

[sbisson]

Here's a Flight International article on airliners that never left the drawing board - from the proposed twin-jet version of the Douglas DC-10, to Boeing's Sonic Cruiser.

Like this British proposal for a VTOL short-haul airliner...

During 1969-71, Hawker Siddeley undertook extensive studies of a V/STOL airliner under the designation HS141. Equipped with a pair of pylon-mounted turbofans in a conventional underwing layout, the HS141 also had a broad belly extension incorporating 16 vertically mounted “advanced lift engines” – Rolls-Royce RB202s. Much effort was invested in ensuring that the aircraft’s noise levels were not excessive, although the likelihood of such an aircraft being quiet is small given its lift engines.

Try flying something like the HS141 VTOL from London City! Then there was the BAC 3-11 - a wide-bodied long-haul follow-up to the noisy Pocket Rockets that were the bread-and-butter airliners for BEA and a whole flotilla of charter airlines in the 1970s...

Something for the alternate historians.

(nice to see Flight's openness - they're even blogging! Now for AvLeak to drop its paywall)

Comments

[sbisson.livejournal.com]

I used to regularly fly in 146s on Dan Dare's bus stop route: Belfast/IoM/Liverpool/Cardiff/Bristol/Guernsey/Jersey

One trip they had (forgets serial number, but it was the Queen's Flight proving aircraft. The pilot seemed intent on demonstrating short field two-engine landings on every stop...

[ianmcdonald.livejournal.com]

It was dan Dare that landed a 146 at the wrong airport in Belfast, not the well-lit, prominent Aldergrove but the decommissioned Nutts Corner (appropriate name if ever there were) two miles away. If it had been Sunday, he'd have run slap bang into a market selling ireland's highest concentration of counterfeit goods. Apparently he had to take off and land at Aldergrove... but the passengers refused to go with him and ordered a fleet of taxis.

[quercus.livejournal.com]

And a week or two later, didn't Dan Dare manage to do it _again_ (picking the wrong chunk of Belfast Harbour/City)

I used to fly Belfast - Newcastle fairly often. If you were lucky you were on a 146 route (and just had to breathe gearbox oil), if you were unlucky you got one of Shorts' flying transits.

[ajshepherd.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, Shorts. "That's a nice aeroplane, when are you taking it out of the box?"

[quercus.livejournal.com]

If it hadn't been going to cost Silly Money to deliver it, I almost bought one once (actually a scrapped fuselage), to use as a Shed.

[ajshepherd.livejournal.com]

I think it was a 146 that Prince Charles notably pranged by running it off the end of a runway into a ditch. They didn't let him fly after that!