FAAM AIRCRAFT

The FAAM aircraft is the original BAE 146, first registered as G-SSSH in 1981 as a model 100. In 1987 it was extended to become a model 300 and re-registered as G-LUXE and this registration has been retained for the research aircraft. Before the modifications for atmospheric research it had flown a total of about 2915 hours on 3105 sorties.

Following modification, the aircraft was given a "Type Record" of BAE 146-301 on 5th May 2004 and CAA Certificate of Airworthiness on 6th May 2004. The aircraft has a range of about 1800 nautical miles, a ceiling of 35000 feet and a maximum flight duration of a little more than five hours. It will carry 3 crew and up to 18 scientists. Seating arrangements.

Many photographsof the aircraft are available.
Close ups of exterior probes, sensors, inlets and antennae.

Main dimensions: Length 30.99m (101ft 8in), Wingspan 26.34m (86ft 5in), Height 8.61m (28ft 3in).

Maximum Take-Off Weight (MTOW): 42184kg (93000lb).

A nominal runway of 1600m (30m wide) and PCN (Pavement Classification Number) of at least 28 is required.

ICAO Category 6 Rescue and Fire-Fighting Cover is needed for FAAM operations. See CAA CAP168. This is roughly equivalent to FAA category B.

A 90KVA GPU is essential to maintain scientific power on the ground.

Crosswind must be less than 35 knots at take-off.

The aircraft uses Jet A1 fuel. Total fuel tank capacity is 3373 imperial gallons or 26984 lb (15334 litres). Typically 4100 lb of this will be needed as reserves, so the maximum burn on a flight will normally be 22884 lb (13004 l).

For a flight at 27000 ft at 200 kts the endurance is 5.6 hours without using reserves, implying an average fuel burn of 4086 lb/hour or 2322 litres/hour.

A sketch of cabin cross section and diagrams to show some stringer nomenclature.

Some password-protected BAE Systems' Documentation on the Conversion

Cabin Layouts: Initial, ITOP (scan of HC252H5249), Spring 2005, November 2005, February 2007 (GFDex), April 2007 (IASI), June 2007 (GERBIL), July 2007 (COPS).
Weight and Balance Reports: Initial Fit (14/01/04), ITOP Fit (16/06/04), ADRIEX Fit (20/08/04).

Directflight's Operations Manuals (draft) Part D (Training), Part E.

Parliamentary Questions 27 June 2001.

www.smiliner.com contains information about all the 146 aircraft.

Scanned article from July 1981 edition of Aeromodeller about the new BAE 146 with photos of the FAAM aircraft being built.

The plot below shows rough estimates of rate-of-climb (in feet/minute) for a nominal FAAM aircraft. The data is intended only for use in discussion of observation programmes and should not be used for aircraft performance estimation.

[Climb rate vs altitude for 3 aircraft weights]