G-HKIT BAC 1-11 521FH c/n 196 at Hurn January 1999I have many old photos of aircraft from the past 30 years. The image today was taken back in January 1999 at Bournemouth Hurn airport ( EGHH ).
The BAC 1-11 assembly plant was once located at Hurn so 1-11s were a familiar sight awaiting delivery or back in for servicing.
The photo above was taken on 16th January 1999 - the aircraft was still at Hurn on 29th December 1999 too.
This particular aircraft was built in 1969 and test flew as G-16-10 before delivery to Austral Líneas Aereas of Argentina as LV-JNT in November 1969. The aircraft operated in South Amercia until 1994. In June 1996 it was registered as VR-BEC and ferried to Bournemouth Hurn airport in the UK - the Bermudan registration prefix changed to be VP ( ie VP-BEC ) in April 1997.
It was registered as G-HKIT in June 1997 and registered to European Aviation ( a major operator of 1-11s at the time ). "HKIT" probably refers to "Hushkit" - the aircraft was to be used by European to help the test development of a quieter engine for the notoriously noisy BAC 1-11.
In the photo you can see it has no engines and is still painted in the colours of Austral - I believe this aircraft was stripped for spare parts and not flown as G-HKIT. The aircraft was eventually broken up and scrapped at Hurn in early 2001. This aircraft was "born" at Bournemouth in 1969 and "died" at Bournemouth some 32 years later.
The aircraft was de-registered from the UK CAA register in July 2001.
With thanks to airlinerlist.com for some of the above data
http://www.airlinerlist.com/
Steve
1 comment:
"Notoriously noisy" Steve?
Those Speys sound great!!!
If you were standing next to the runway, when the pilots were applying power it was trembling up to the floor!
Inside the plane nevertheless, it was silent.
I flew several times in the Juliet November Tango as well as all the others BACSs in the fleet of Austral.
Thank you very much for sharing this.
PD: Sorry, English is not my language.
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