BAe Jetstream 41

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Jetstream 41 of Eastern Airways on the runway at Bristol Airport

Jetstream 41 of Eastern Airways taking off from Bristol Airport

The Jetstream 41 is a turboprop-powered feederliner and regional airliner, originally designed by British Aerospace as a "stretched" version of the popular Handley Page Jetstream. Intended to compete directly with 30-seat aircraft like the Embraer Brasilia, Dornier 328 and Saab 340, the new design eventually accommodated 29 passengers in a two by one arrangement like the Jetstream 31's.

The stretch added 16 ft (4.88 m) to the fuselage, consisting of an 8 foot (2.5 m) plug forward of the wing and a 7 ft 9 in (2.36 m) plug to the rear, although the fuselage design was infact all new and did not contain any parts of the old fuselage. The new design demanded a wing with increased span, which also included reworked ailerons and flaps. The wing was also mounted lower on the fuselage so that it did not carry through the cabin aisle, which also led to larger wing root fairings that increased baggage capacity. The latest version of the Garrett engines, now owned by Honeywell, delivered 1,500 shp (1,120 kW) and later 1,650 shp (1,232 KW) and were mounted in new nacelles with increased ground clearance. The flightdeck was improved with a modern EFIS setup, and a new windscreen arrangement. The J41 was the first turob-prop certificated to both JAR25 and FAR25.

The J41 flew for the first time on 25 September 1991 and was certified on 23 November 1992. In January 1996 the J41 became part of the Aero International (Regional) (AI(R)), a marketing consortium consisting of ATR, Aérospatiale (of France), Alenia (of Italy), and British Aerospace. Sales initially were fairly strong, but in May 1997 BAe announced that it was terminating J41 production, with 100 aircraft delivered.

In August 2006 a total of 52 Jetstream J41 aircraft remain in airline service with Mex-Mocambique Express (1), South African Airlink (14), Yeti Airlines (4), Eastern Airways (25), Club Jetstream (1), Morgan Jet Mexico (1) and Trans States Airlines (6).^[1]