British Aerospace ATP

The British Aerospace ATP (Advanced Turbo-Prop) is an airliner produced by British Aerospace, introduced in the 1980s as an evolution of the Hawker Siddeley HS748. The fuel crisis and increasing worries about aircraft noise led business planners at British Aerospace to believe that there was a market for a short-range, low-noise, fuel-efficient turboprop aircraft. By the time it entered the market, the segment was already well represented by designs such as the de Havilland Canada Dash 8, ATR-42 and ATR-72 and production was ended after only sixty-four examples.

Variants

• Jetstream 61: The British Aerospace Jetstream 61 was an improved derivative of the ATP. It featured an interior based on the Jetstream 41 with innovative cabin wall armrests and an increase in capacity from 64 to 70 seats. In addition the airframe incorporated more powerful PW127 engines and increased weights and range. The first flight was completed by the original prototype ATP (serial number 2001) reregistered G-PLXI (LXI being the Roman numeral for 61) on May 10^th, 1994. Four airframes were subsequently produced as Jetstream 61s before British Aerospace’s regional airliner manufacturing operations were merged with ATR as Aero International (Regional) on January 26^th, 1995. With the already highly successful ATR-72 now part of the same product range the Jetstream 61 was immediately cancelled with all four airframes being scrapped at Woodford. The original ATP and Jetstream 61 prototype is currently in storage at Woodford awaiting a final move to the Jetstream Club at Liverpool.
• Maritime ATP: This was a variant for use in military naval operations, with a surveillance radar under the forward fuselage, nose-mounted FLIR and internal sonar buoys. A suite of special crew stations also featured, as did a choice of up to six weapon pylons under the wings and fuselage. The Maritime ATP was later known as the BAe P.132. None were built.
• ATP-AEW: The AEW was a 1986 proposal for an Airborne Early Warning aircraft for Australia, with two EMI Skymaster radars in nose and tail radomes, similar in appearance to the Nimrod AEW.3. None were built.

See Also

Related Development

• Hawker Siddeley HS748
• Hawker Siddeley Andover
• British Aerospace Jetstream
• British Aerospace Jetstream 41

Comparable Aircraft

• ATR-72
• De Havilland Canada DHC-8 Dash-8
• Ilyushin Il-114
• Saab 2000