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BAC
ONE-ELEVEN by Stephen Skinner
Published by
ISBN 0 7524 2774 1 Price $26.99 / £16.99
In August 1963 the first One-Eleven took to the air with an order book for sixty aircraft, more than half from the United States, an unprecedented situation for a British civil aircraft. The project was the first for the newly-formed British Aircraft Corporation which came into being in 1960. The One-Eleven played a considerable role in the whole story of BAC itself. It was the only aircraft wholly designed and built by BAC and remained in production throughout the entire seventeen-year history of the organization, reaching its sales peak when profits for the Corporation were at a low ebb. In March 2002 the last One-Eleven commercial flights in Europe took place, almost forty years after the maiden flight. This book, the product of much original research, illustrated with 180 photos and images, considers what transpired in those four decades and the special place the aircraft holds in British aviation history. |
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Royal Aeronautical Society review of ‘BAC One-Eleven: the Whole Story’ June 2003
Intended as a jet replacement for the Viscount, the BAC One-Eleven twinjet airliner owes its origins to the Hunting H107 project that the Vickers team at Weybridge eventually developed into the definitive BAC One-Eleven. This followed the shelving of the VC11, a short-haul derivative of the VC10.
In May 1961 the British Aircraft Corporation, which had absorbed the aerospace interests of both Vickers and Hunting, launched the One-Eleven on the back of an order from British United Airways. When it first flew in August 1963, the BAC One-Eleven was the world's first purpose-designed short-haul jet airliner. With 60 orders at the time of its first flight (over half of which were from three US airlines), the One-Eleven achieved a European first for numbers sold at such an early stage of the programme's life.
Stephen Skinner's new book on this classic British airliner is a welcome addition for those interested in the history of civil aircraft. Fruit of much original research and a clear love for the subject, (the author was present at the One-Eleven's first flight), the book provides a comprehensive history of the aircraft, including the setback of the prototype's crash with the loss of everyone on board in October 1963 following a 'super-stall', the first commercial service with BUA in April 1965 and the later developments.
Of particular interest is Skinner's analysis of the reasons why, although moderately successful (a total of 244 aircraft were built), the One-Eleven failed to achieve its full sales potential. All the main reasons are lucidly analysed, from the Rolls-Royce Spey engine's power limitations to the delays in certifying the aircraft, BAC's failure to launch stretched variants sooner, the proposed further stretches of the 1970s that came to nothing and the thwarted development of the Tay re-engine variant. It is another all too familiar British story of missed opportunities in civil aircraft.
The book is illustrated with 180 black and white and colour photographs and with Rolando Ugolini's fine drawings. Appendices cover, inter alia, a pilot's assessment of the aircraft, the full production list, a recount of one of the type's recent commercial flights from the flight deck and brief biographies of key members of the flight test team. A comprehensive review of all the aircraft's proposed variants adds to the book's completeness.
I recommend Skinner's book to anyone interested in the history of British transport aircraft.
Graziano Freschi MRAeS
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