Jetstream 41

Jetstream 41
Eastern Airways BAe Jetstream 41
Role	Regional airliner/Feederliner
Manufacturer	British Aerospace
First flight	25 September 1991
Introduction	25 November 1992
Primary users	Eastern Airways South African Airlink Easyfly
Produced	1992–1997
Number built	100
Unit cost	$6 million (1991)
Developed from	Handley Page Jetstream
Variants	British Aerospace Jetstream 31

The British Aerospace Jetstream 41 is a turboprop-powered feederliner and regional airliner, designed by British Aerospace as a "stretched" version of the popular Jetstream 31. 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. Eastern Airways of the UK is the biggest operator of Jetstream 41s in the world, with 17 in the fleet.

The Jetstream 41's stretch added 16 feet (4.88 m) to the fuselage, consisting of an 8 foot 3 in (2.51 m) plug forward of the wing and a 7 feet 9 inches (2.36 m) plug to the rear; the fuselage design was 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 is also mounted below the fuselage, so that it did not carry through the cabin aisle, also allowing increased baggage capacity in the larger wing root fairings.

The Allied Signal TPE331−14 engines deliver 1,500 shp (1,120 kW), (later 1,650 shp (1,232 kW)), and are mounted in nacelles with increased ground clearance. The flightdeck is improved with a modern EFIS setup, and a new windscreen arrangement. The J41 was the first turbo-prop certified to both JAR25 and FAR25 standards.

The J41 flew for the first time on 25 September 1991 and was certified on 23 November 1992 in Europe, and 9 April 1993 in the United States, with the first delivery, to Manx Airlines on 25 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.