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The Avro RJ85 is a four-engined, high-wing regional airliner built by British Aerospace's Avro International Aerospace subsidiary, a re-engined and modernised derivative of the BAe 146-200. Seating up to 112 passengers and prized for its quiet operation and short-field capability, it became a familiar sight at constrained city airports such as London City, and remains of interest to sim pilots for its distinctive four-engine, T-tail handling and steep approach characteristics.
The Avro RJ85 is the mid-size member of the Avro RJ family, itself a developed version of the British Aerospace 146 short-haul airliner. It is a high-wing cantilever monoplane with a T-tail and four turbofan engines mounted on underwing pylons, fitted with retractable tricycle landing gear. Corresponding directly to the BAe 146-200 in fuselage length, the RJ85 was marketed as part of a family alongside the smaller RJ70 and larger RJ100, and like the rest of the range it earned the nickname Whisperjet for its unusually quiet operation, a quality that suited it to noise-sensitive, city-centre airports.
The RJ85's lineage begins with the HS.146 programme launched by Hawker Siddeley in August 1973 to bridge the gap between turboprop airliners such as the Hawker Siddeley HS.748 and Fokker F27 and small jets such as the BAC One-Eleven and Boeing 737. Work was suspended in October 1974 following the economic downturn caused by the 1973 oil crisis, but British Aerospace, Hawker Siddeley's successor, relaunched the project in 1978, marketing it as a quiet, low-consumption turbofan replacement for ageing turboprop feeder aircraft. The BAe 146 prototype first flew on 3 September 1981 and received its Certificate of Airworthiness on 8 February 1983. British Aerospace subsequently developed the improved Avro RJ family, first offering the RJ70 and RJ80 in 1990 based on the 146-100 before settling on the RJ70, RJ85 and RJ100 designations. The Avro RJ85, based on the 146-200 airframe, was the first of the new RJ family to fly, on 23 March 1992. The initial customer for the RJ85 was Crossair, which took delivery of its first aircraft on 23 April 1993. Production of the Avro RJ range was carried out by Avro International Aerospace at Woodford Aerodrome in Greater Manchester, with component manufacture spread across former BAE sites including Chadderton, Filton, Brough and Prestwick, and wings supplied by Textron. Avro briefly became part of AI(R), a joint marketing venture with a planned Taiwan Aerospace partnership, but this fell through and AI(R) was disbanded in 1998, returning the RJ programme to British Aerospace, later BAE Systems. The last Avro RJ was delivered in 2002, with 170 RJ-series aircraft built in total, comprising 12 RJ70s, 87 RJ85s and 71 RJ100s.
The RJ85 retains the BAe 146-200's fuselage length of 28.60 metres (93ft 10in), with a wing span of 26.21 metres (86ft), a height of 8.61 metres (28ft 3in) and a wing area of 77.3 square metres (832 sq ft). It is powered by four AlliedSignal (later Honeywell) LF-507 turbofans, each rated at 31.1kN (7,000lb) thrust, fitted with FADEC for improved reliability and efficiency compared with the ALF 502 engines of the original 146. Operating empty weight is 24,600kg (54,239lb) and maximum take-off weight is 43,998kg (97,000lb). Compared with the BAe 146, the Avro RJ series introduced a new digital flightdeck, a redesigned Spaceliner cabin interior, and, from 1996, weight and drag-saving improvements. Maximum seating in the passenger cabin is for 112 at six abreast with 74cm (29in) pitch, though a more typical configuration seats 85 passengers five abreast at 84cm (33in) pitch.
The RJ85 has a maximum operating speed of Mach 0.73, a cruising speed of 763km/h (412kt) and a long-range cruising speed of 720km/h (389kt). Range with maximum fuel is 2,965km (1,600nm), while range with maximum payload is 2,130km (1,150nm). The type's four-engine configuration was originally chosen for the BAe 146 family to give exceptional performance on three engines, an advantage valued by operators flying from mountainous, high, hot or poor-grade airfields, and the aircraft's high wing and T-tail configuration was selected specifically to deliver good short-field performance.
The Avro RJ family comprises the RJ70, RJ85 and RJ100, corresponding respectively to the BAe 146-100, -200 and -300 fuselage lengths. The RJ85, based on the 146-200, was the first of the three to fly, on 23 March 1992, ahead of the RJ100's first flight on 13 May 1992; the RJ70 entered delivery later, from late 1993, but attracted limited customer interest with only 12 built. An extended RJ115 version of the RJ100, with extra emergency exits for higher-density seating, was offered but never built, as was a proposed Avro Business Jet derivative. Freight and convertible variants across the wider 146/RJ family carried the QT (Quiet Trader) and QC (Quick Change) designations, and a gravel kit could be fitted for operations from unprepared airstrips. A further-developed version with new engines, the Avro RJX, was announced in 1997, but only two prototypes and one production aircraft were completed before all production ceased in 2001.
The RJ85 has served principally as a short-haul regional airliner, with Crossair as its launch operator from April 1993. The wider BAe 146/Avro RJ family has seen service with operators including Mahan Air, National Jet Express and Pionair Australia, and aircraft of the type have also been used as private jets and as firefighting air tankers through conversion of former airline aircraft. On 3 May 2017, an Airlink Avro RJ85 flew the first commercial airline service in history to Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, a charter routing from Cape Town via Mocamedes, Angola, to Saint Helena Airport, undertaken to collect passengers stranded when the island's usual link, the Royal Mail Ship RMS St Helena, suffered propeller damage.
The RJ85's four-engine layout, high wing and T-tail give it a distinctive profile and handling character that sets it apart from twin-engine regional jets, and its renowned quietness in real-world operation is part of what has made it a memorable type for those who have flown or flown on it. Its short-field capability and long history of operations into constrained city airports such as London City give the type an operational flavour of interest to pilots seeking demanding approach and departure profiles rather than long-haul cruise flying.
