Jetstream 32 British Airliner 1/72 Scale Plastic Model Kit Amodel 72262

The British Aerospace Jetstream (Jetstream 31/32) is a light twin-engine turboprop passenger aircraft designed and manufactured by the British Aerospace Corporation. It is an upgraded model of the Jetstream 1 aircraft manufactured by Handley Page.

After the bankruptcy of the British aircraft manufacturer Handley Page, the rights to its patents and aircraft production were transferred to Scottish Aviation, which in 1978 became part of the national corporation British Aerospace (now BAE Systems). On December 5 of the same year, BAE decided to upgrade the model of the 19-seat turboprop liner HP.137 "Jetstream", produced from mid-1968 to 1969. The new project received the working title "Mark 3 Jetstream".

The pre-production aircraft "Jetstream 31" with an unequipped cabin first took to the air on March 28, 1980. The machine was equipped with more powerful Garrett TREP31 turboprop engines (760 kW at a thermodynamic limit of 820 kW) with an extended overhaul interval compared to the previous Turbomeca Astazou engines. The first serial copy of the model was released on January 25, 1982 and made its first flight on March 18 of the same year. June 29, 1982 Jetstream 31 was certified in the UK, and in November received a certificate in the United States of America.

By 1993, 386 Jetstream series aircraft had been produced, including 161 Jetstream Super 31 aircraft with 14 passenger cabins. The Super 31 is also known as the Jetstream 32 or Jetstream 32EP and differs from the base model in a larger luggage compartment and more powerful TPE331-12 engines (1020 hp each).

Of the 386 Jetstream aircraft produced, by December 2008, 128 aircraft remained in operation. By the end of 2008, the main operators of the series were Pascan Aviation (11 units), Direktflyg (7 units), Vincent Aviation (4 units), Jet Air (4 units), Blue Islands (4 units), Sun Air of Scandinavia (3 units) and AIS Airlines (3 units). More than 40 other airlines had one or two aircraft of this series in their fleets.

In July 2008, several aircraft manufacturers led by BAE Systems conducted a series of tests with a specially equipped Jetstream 31 aircraft (registration G-BWWW), during which the aircraft flew a total of 1290 kilometers without any human intervention in aircraft control .