|
Hawker Siddeley Dominie
Design & Development One of the British aviation industry's most successful postwar designs, the Hawker Siddeley HS-125 was one of the most successful first generation business jets and in developed form remains in production with Raytheon. The HS-125 started life as a De Havilland project before that company became part of the Hawker Siddeley group. As the DH-125 the aircraft flew for the first time on 13th August 1962. For a time the DH-125 was named the Jet Dragon, while just eight initial Series 1 production aircraft were built before deliveries switched to the more powerful Series 1A and Series 1B. A total of 77 was built. The Series 2 meanwhile was a military derivative built for Britain's RAF as the Dominie T.1 navigation trainer. The improved Series 3A and 3B had a higher gross weight, while the 3A/RA and 3B/RA were heavier still with extra fuel for greater range. When De Havilland merged into Hawker Siddeley the Series 4, which featured numerous minor refinements, was marketed as the Series 400A and 400B. The final Viper turbojet powered 125 built was the Series 600A and 600B. The Series 600 features a stretched fuselage taking standard main cabin seating from six to eight, or up to 14 in a high density configuration. Other changes included more powerful Rolls Royce Viper 601-22 turbojets, lengthened vertical tail and ventral fin and a fuel tank in the extended dorsal fin. The 600 first flew on 21st January 1971 and it became the standard production model until the Garrett TFE-731 turbofan powered 700 series was introduced in 1976. Some Series 600s were re-engined with TFE-731s as HS-125-F600s. The aircraft went through many designation changes during its service life. Originally DH.125, it was renamed the HS.125 after de Havilland became a division of Hawker Siddeley in 1963. When Hawker Siddeley Aircraft merged with the British Aircraft Corporation to form British Aerospace in 1977, the name changed to BAe 125. Then, when British Aerospace sold its Business Jets Division to Raytheon in 1993, the jet acquired the name Raytheon Hawker. The fuselage, wings and tail-fin are to this day fully assembled and partially equipped (primary and secondary flight controls) in Airbus UK's Broughton plant, on the outskirts of Chester, sub-assemblies are produced in Airbus UK's Buckley site. All these assembled components are then shipped to Wichita, Kansas in the United States, to where final assembly was transferred in 1996.
The Dominie T.1, which has been in RAF service since 1965, is the military training version of the Hawker Siddeley 125 twin-jet business aircraft. A total of nine aircraft are operated by No.55(R) Squadron at the RAF College Cranwell, where they are used to train weapon systems officers and operators, air engineers and air load masters in systems management, air leadership, decision making and teamwork to meet the operational demands of the RAF. In 1996 the aircraft underwent a major upgrade program, with the installation of a modern avionics suite and a new systems installation and cabin layout, completed under contract by Racal and Marshall Aerospace. The design features included installation of a Super Searcher Ground-mapping Radar, which was fully integrated with the aircraft’s associated radio equipment, avionics systems, multicolor displays and navigation mission-computer. The Dominie T.1 has a maximum crew of six and is generally operated with one pilot captain, with the remaining aircrew comprising a balance of up to five students and instructors. Training sorties are usually of two to three hours duration and are flown in a mixture of regimes dependent on the stage of training and the exercise requirements. These sorties include a mix of low-level flying, maritime operations, radar handling and targeting training. Medium level, high level and general-handling sorties are flown for other training requirements, including trials flights conducted for the Air Warfare Centre at RAF Waddington. The aircraft was finally retired on 20th January 2011 after being in service with the RAF for 46 years. Production Summary
|
