The BAC One-Eleven (or BAC 1-11) was originally conceived by Hunting Aircraft as the 30-seat Hunting H107 although a full prototype was never created. When Luton-based Hunting Aircraft were merged as part of British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) in 1960, the former Vickers-Armstrongs factory at Brooklands, Weybridge was already working on the BAC VC7 project, a 140-seat development of their successful VC10 aircraft. Having identified the H107 as 'having merit', BAC decided to merge the projects under the heading of BAC107. Market research suggested that at 59-seats, the BAC107 was going to be too small for civil operators and much of the design data was re-worked into what emerged as the 80-seater BAC 1-11. The main design development went to the BAC team in Surrey, whilst production of the prototypes were undertaken at Hurn (now Bournemouth Airport).
Although it was immediately clear that the BAC 1-11 would hold a number of important technological advantages over other airliners of the time, including the US built Douglas DC9, the authorities in the United States continued to withhold their permission for US-based airlines to purchase foreign aircraft. Confidence in the aircraft remained high however, with further pre-orders arriving almost weekly, and in July 1963 American Airlines (who had finally broken the restrictions) added another 15 aircraft to their requirement, taking their total order to 60. With pre-launch orders already building steadily, the BAC 1-11 Series 200 prototype (G-ASHG) flew for the first time from Hurn on 20th August 1963. Despite the tragic loss of the prototype in a crash on 22nd October 1963 (during stall testing), full development continued and saw the introduction of the then revolutionary ‘stick-shakers and pushers’ on the BAC 1-11’s control systems as well as a number of additional innovations in airline design. Unlike other aircraft entering the market, the BAC 1-11 was not designed for any specific sector and certainly not with one single airline in mind. This made the aircraft very flexible and it was anticipated that sales orders would reach or even exceed 400 aircraft.
The BAC 1-11 was finally certified for passenger service and the first customer handover (to British United Airways (BUA) with G-ASJI) took place on 22nd January 1965. This was followed in July 1965 by the introduction of the BAC 1-11 Series 400, primarily aimed at the US market. A stretched BAC 1-11 Series 500 (or Super One-Eleven) flew on 30th June 1967 and increased the passenger capacity from 79 to 119 passengers, making the aircraft even more cost-effective and popular on European Inter-City routes, as well as with the new package holiday operators. The BAC 1-11 510ED version was primarily operated by British European Airways (BEA) although these aircraft were subsequently operated by several 'Tour Airlines' after their retirement from BEA service. The BAC1-11 Series 475 had been optimised for hot and high / short airfield operations (combining a BAC 1-11 Series 400 fuselage with a Series 500 wing) and it first flew on 27th August 1970. Sadly, the market was changing and other manufacturers were developing newer and more competitive designs so in the end only 10 of these aircraft were sold. During 1973, a BAC 1-11 Series 201 was purchased from British Caledonian and transferred to the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) Blind Landing Experimental Unit at Thurleigh (as XX105). This aircraft was involved in numerous development flights for what we now commonly refer to as ILS, or Instrument Landing System.
In 1977, BAC merged with the Hawker Siddeley Group to form British Aerospace (BAe) and shortlky thereafter a BAC 1-11 Series 800 was proposed. It would accommodate some 150 passengers in a 'mixed-class layout' and although it looked promising for a while, its fate was sealed with the development of a ‘European Competitor’ to the ubiquitous U.S. short / medium range airliners and it did not progress to the design stage. In 1979 a licencing arrangement with Romania to produce as many as 80 BAC 1-11s was signed. The first flight of a Rombac 1-11 (YR-BRA) was on 18th September 1982 and production continued until the ninth, and last ever, new production 1-11 (YR-BRI) took to the air in April 1989. Sadly, the Rombac project collapsed shortly afterwards due to the unstable political situation in Romania.
The BAC 2-11 (Two-Eleven) and BAC 3-11 (Three-Eleven) were British airliner studies proposed by BAC in the late 1960s although none made it to the prototype stage.
UK production of the BAC 1-11 ended in 1984, with a total of 244 aircraft, including the nine complete and two unfinished Romanian aircraft.