Originally Posted by
Wally Bird
Properly called the
Avro 748
. Lovingly referred to as the "Budgie"
. BEA never had any but British Airways had a few in the Highland division
BEA indeed never had any 748s, firstly because they had a huge Viscount fleet that progressively got handed down to the short runs (which BA did, eventually, convert to 748s), and secondly because BEA had bought a few of a competing same-sized type that came along at the same time, the Handley Page Herald. This was another 50-seat turboprop, that looked more similar to the F27 because it was high wing. One of its features was a pronounced wing dihedral that looked like both the wings were pointing upwards at 45 degrees - well, bit of an exaggeration, but it was certainly noticeable. Handley Page only built some 50 of them, several made it to Canada and South America but I think I'm correct that none got onto the US register. Rolls-Royce Dart engines again, what a hit that product was for Rolls.