British Aerospace BAe 146-100

The BAe 146 was built by British Aerospace as a short-haul airliner/regional jet. The BAe 146 has a high monoplane wing with a T-tail configuration and four turbofan engines. A total of 221 were built between 1983 and 1992.

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de Havilland DH89A Dragon Rapide

The DH89A Dragon Rapide is an all-wood, twin-engine biplane passenger aircraft. The first flight of the prototype was from Hatfield by Hubert Broad on 17th April 1934. The first operator was Hillman Airways from Maylands Airport at Romford, their first aircraft G-ACPM making its debut at Hatfield on 13 July 1934 when Hubert Broad averaged 158 mph in the King’s Cup Air Race, before having to retire due to hail damage.

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de Havilland DH104 Dove Mk.8

The Museum’s exhibit, Dove 8, was built at Chester in 1961. It was initially the company’s type demonstrator, later used as a 6-seat VIP communications aircraft by Hawker Siddeley, then British Aerospace. It was moved to the Museum in 2000.

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de Havilland DH114 Heron Mk.2D

Designed at Hatfield, and first flown in 1950, the Heron feeder airliner was effectively a stretched four-engine version of the Dove. It was unpressurised, flown by a crew of two and able to carry up to 17 passengers, or 14 with a lavatory compartment fitted. It used Dove outer wing panels, and Dove nose and tail units joined by an extended fuselage. As with the Dove, the airframe, engines and propellers were all made by de Havilland.

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de Havilland DH106 Comet 4

The Museum’s exhibit is a Comet 4 analogue flight simulator for crew training was built for BOAC by Redifon Flight Simulation at Crawley. It used a redundant Comet 2 front fuselage, but with functioning cockpit equipment and instruments installed to Comet 4 standard. Such simulators offered flight crew training at low cost and in complete safety. Ownership of the simulator was transferred to Dan-Air in 1970, when BOAC sold its Comet 4s. After being used for a total of 10,660 training hours, the flight simulator was taken out of service in 1983 when Dan-Air retired its Comet fleet. It was kept at the Science Museum’s store at Wroughton until 1996, when it was offered to this Museum, and transported here.

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de Havilland DH106 Comet 2R

The Museum’s exhibit, XK695 was retired to the Imperial War Museum (IWM) Duxford in 1975 having completed flying 8,236 hours in over 3,200 flights. Because of excessive corrosion, it was dismantled in 1992. The surviving nose and front fuselage was donated to the Museum in 1995, by Hanningfield Metals in Essex. The supporting metal frame was sponsored by City Steel of St Albans.

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de Havilland DH121 Trident

First flown in 1962, the Trident was the second turbojet airliner designed and built at Hatfield. It was designed for speed and economy on short-haul operations by British European Airways, with an advanced 35 degree swept wing for cruise at Mach 0.88. The Trident broke new ground by having three engines, and by having all three at the rear (with the middle engine buried below the fin) so placing the jet exhaust noise behind the passenger cabin. The Trident was also the first airliner in the World to be designed and certified for automatic landing, with the Smiths Industries ‘Autoland’ system.

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de Havilland DH125

Designed at Hatfield, and first flown there in 1962, the de Havilland DH125 executive aircraft was the jet successor to the Dove. It was made simple for low cost e.g. with no thrust reversers or engine silencers, and low wing sweep with no leading-edge flaps or slats.

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de Havilland DH106 Comet 1A

The de Havilland DH106 ‘Comet’ was the World’s first turbojet-powered airliner, designed and built at Hatfield and first flown by John Cunningham in 1949.

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