Perhaps this would be more at home on the Historic thread ?- Mods, please move if appropriate
I was walking to my car across the staff car-park here at Gatwick last night, to the intermittent (boring)whining drone of the usual evening rush of departing airbuses and 737s, when a very different engine note caught my ear as another flight took off.
Just as I was starting to think “If I didn’t know better I’d think that was a good old fashioned classic jet…”, when the ‘plane came into sight, taking off from the easterly runway. To my surprise I recognised the classic lines of BAC 1-11 – short pointed nose, slightly “portly” fuselage proportions, clean wings with smaller flaps than modern types, compact T-tail with near parallel fin leading and trailing edges, and twin rear mounted engines (making a lovely noise).
With a roar she flew past, climbing at a much shallower angle than most modern airliners, before turning southwards towards Seaford/Brighton. She continued to climb at such a slow rate that I started to wonder if there was a problem, but she headed off into the clear sky, leaving a slightly sooty trail in her wake.
What a beautiful sight she made against the early evening sky – white fuselage, light blue cheat line under the windows, white (or dove grey?) undersides, and darker blue engine nacelles – with polished “after market” hushkits clearly visible. The tail was plain white – no visible logo.
I stood in the car park for a few minutes, thinking how lucky I’d been to leave work a few minutes later than usual, or I’d have missed her completely, and also trying to work out when I last saw a 1-11 airborne in UK, or last saw 1-11 operating out of Gatwick……
Did anyone get a photo of her, or know who owns her? Any ideas where she was going? I presume she is operated as private executive transport these days?
I’ve been based in offices here at Gatwick for 18months now, but never noticed her here before, does anyone know if she’s likely to be back? Next time I want to have a camera handy 🙁 , so far as I am aware there’s not many of her type left?
Cheers
Paul F
By: Newforest - 8th June 2007 at 21:34
Must study harder, thanks for the update!:)
By: Mrshu - 8th June 2007 at 21:19
YR-CJL was sold to the Mali Government earlier this year. It is now registered as TZ-BSB. The MIA web page is therefore slightly out of date!
Check out my News page for futher details.
Peter
By: Newforest - 8th June 2007 at 17:03
Thanks for your kind words about my 1-11 website.
You still ask how many 1-11s MIA Airlines have in their fleet though???
As you ask, the answer is two. YR-HRS and YR-MIA
It does say on the website which is the whole point of the site! Check out the current fleet page!
Your site has been bookmarked for further study but the question was relevant as doing a quick glance through, I couldn’t see any mention of YR-CJL and the web site for MIA states that they have three 1-11’s. YR-CJL was flying last year.
By: Paul F - 8th June 2007 at 11:47
Thanks Mrshu
Peter,
Thanks for confirming details – it was a very pleasent surprise to see her earning her keep.
Having also seen one of the last airworthy Boeing 707’s plying her trade for the Romanian Government (at Henri Coanda airport, Bucharest) last December, it seems I need to thank Romania for letting me see two “classic” airliner types that are becoming increasingly rare.
Paul F
P.S. Your 1-11 website looks very good.
By: Mrshu - 8th June 2007 at 09:20
Thanks for your kind words about my 1-11 website.
You still ask how many 1-11s MIA Airlines have in their fleet though???
As you ask, the answer is two. YR-HRS and YR-MIA
It does say on the website which is the whole point of the site! Check out the current fleet page!
Thanks again for your interest and please do let me know if any images come to light. I’ve seen a few at the UKAR site.
Peter
www.bac1-11jet.co.uk
By: Newforest - 7th June 2007 at 20:29
I can confirm that it was definitely MIA Airline’s YR-MIA. It flew in from Tripoli at around 4.00pm and departed when you saw it shortly after 5.00pm.
A fine machine indeed!
Peter
www.bac1-11jet.co.uk
Thanks for the confirmation Peter, great site you have there! So can you confirm whether MIA have two or three in service? YR-MIA seems to be very busy!
By: Mrshu - 7th June 2007 at 18:43
I can confirm that it was definitely MIA Airline’s YR-MIA. It flew in from Tripoli at around 4.00pm and departed when you saw it shortly after 5.00pm.
A fine machine indeed!
Peter
www.bac1-11jet.co.uk
By: Manston Airport - 7th June 2007 at 16:55
This one, http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1098762/L/ ?
James
By: Newforest - 7th June 2007 at 16:41
In the absence of any better candidates I will assume this is indeed the one in question.
Newforest, not sure my budget quite runs to chartering her – mores the pity!
Thanks chaps – seems no one else managed to take a photo of her yesterday either 🙁 .
Paul F
Well MIA have three 1-11’s on strength although only two may be in service. The two flying are in different colours, so could have been the ‘other’ one.
By: Paul F - 7th June 2007 at 16:06
A likely candidate emerges
Could this be her Paul?
1L.
Could well be… I found a couple of shots of this example myself by browsing on Airliners.net myself this lunchtime, though the shade of blue didn’t look as dark as shown on those photos. The thin stripe on the fin would have been easy to miss, but the nacelles definitely seemed to be a sort of royal blue rather than navy as per this photo, with polished silver/steel hush kit shrouds – but it could well have been a trick of the light.
In the absence of any better candidates I will assume this is indeed the one in question.
Newforest, not sure my budget quite runs to chartering her – mores the pity!
Thanks chaps – seems no one else managed to take a photo of her yesterday either 🙁 .
Paul F
By: Newforest - 7th June 2007 at 14:08
Could this be her Paul?
1L.
If it was, you can charter it and it was in Manchester last month.
http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=70021&highlight=1-11
By: Paul F - 7th June 2007 at 13:20
Ooops!
Well spotted Paul 😮 – duly corrected
I too would love to see any photos of her – she was a real beauty, and a nice change from all the boring characterless modern types that I see here every day.
Paul F
By: PMN - 7th June 2007 at 13:11
Do you often take your car for a walk? :p
If anyone did get a photo of this old girl I’d love to see it!
Paul
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June 7, 2007 at 9:22 am