The abortive BAC 311 of late 1960s vintage isn’t far off what you suggest, albeit a short/medium hauler. After a number of brochures, a mock-up interior and, I think, some tentative metal cutting, it fell victim to the incoming Conservative government of Ted Heath in 1970, unwilling to provide launch aid to the 311 while at the same time supporting the crisis-hit Rolls-Royce. Hawker Siddeley was hanging on in there with Airbus, too, and as negotiations for Britain’s entry into the EU were finally about to come to fruition, it may have been thought that backing the all-British 311 would sent out the wrong signal – even though HS was in Airbus purely as a commercial venture.
How successful the 311 would have been is open to question. It’s worth noting that no rear-engined widebody has ever some to fruition – the general wisdom is that the trade-off between wing and rear mounted engines seems to favour smaller planes, and maybe the 311 would have been horribly overweight.
Even the Soviets, with a philosophy of installing sufficient thrust to meet performance targets regardless of fuel economy, never went down this road.
Maybe someone could jog my memory, but I do seem to remember a rather outlandish impression doing the rounds of a long-haul BAC widebody round about that time which had an interesting approach to the problem of fitting four RB211/JT9D-type engines at the rear. Died the death, thankfully.
William
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