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Description
Okay this is the next evolution of the Turboliner and Westminster planes I created earlier, a pure jet transport

Designs for the Duchess were begun in 1958, while work on the Westminster was already progressing. The Duchess was essentially a Westminster fuselage with low bypass fan jets and a revised wing instead of turboprops

Designs were finalised by 1962 and a prototype was comissioned. The tides of the British Aircraft industry were changing, and were changing for the worst for Saunders Roe. In 1960, they were forcibly merged merged with A.V. Roe, DeHavilland, and English Electric to form the Hawker-Siddley conglomerate. DeHavilland's project the HS 121 Trident had already been finalised and construction of a prototype was well underway when the merger occured. By the time Saunders Roe finished the Prototype Duchess in 1964, the HS Trident was already being flight tested.

The first Prototype AC for the Duchess was rolled out in the summer of 1964 onto the ramp at Saro's East Cowes facilities. The engines were run up and ground tests ensued. Taxi tests and braking tests were begun as well, by 1965, a flight test was certain.

The blow came rather abruptly when in February of 1965, HS management decided that having two large, technologically daring AC in production was going to dent their sales figures, and drive R &D budget over it's limits. Besides, the Duchess had no customers as of yet, while orders were already in place for the Trident from BEA. So HS demanded that all production worjk on the Duchess be terminated and the prototype be destroyed

So in March of 1965 the Duchess was taxied to a corner of the East Cowes ramp and a second unfinished structural test specimen was parked next to her. The next week, contractors were brought in to uncerimoniously demolish the two aircraft, the 10 RR Conway engines of the prototype being salvaged and returned to RR Derby for reconditioning for VC10 use No surviving component of the prototype aircraft exists. It was rumoured that one of the "rams horn" control sticks still exists, but no one has been shure

TECHNICAL: The Duchess shares the same dimensions of the Westminster, but with a sharper sweepback of the wings and tail. Power is supplied by 10 Rolls Royce Conway RCo. Mk.12's producing 35,000 pounds of thrust each. There are two engines installed in a "package" which is buried in the wing leading edges. The entire"package" of two engines, and accessory drives can be removed and lowered out of the wing for maintenance. Automatic shutters close off an engine intake if it has to be shut down.
A SNECMA Artouste gas turbine APU is located in the right wing fillet, to supply electricity AC and hydraulic power to the systems while the engines are down.

Hydraulics control every aspect of this aircraft from brakes and nosewheel steering, to the triple redundant control surfaces, as well as unique features like powered sliding passenger doors, that slide overhead to allow egress, and an oleo-pneumatic leveling system that transfers hydraulic pressure btween both main undercarriages and the nose undercarriage to reduce "roll" and bounce during taxiing. A Dunlop skid control system keeps the BF Goodrich multi disk brakes from locking up during deceleration.

The Duchess also benefited from an early version of a Category III Blind landing system, a device which would be commonplace on the HS Trident, and later the Lockheed Tristar. Duchess also benefited from a flux-gated compass system and an N1 high latitude gyrocompass which all predated Inertial navigation for at least another decade.

Description
Okay this is the next evolution of the Turboliner and Westminster planes I created earlier, a pure jet transport

Designs for the Duchess were begun in 1958, while work on the Westminster was already progressing. The Duchess was essentially a Westminster fuselage with low bypass fan jets and a revised wing instead of turboprops

Designs were finalised by 1962 and a prototype was comissioned. The tides of the British Aircraft industry were changing, and were changing for the worst for Saunders Roe. In 1960, they were forcibly merged merged with A.V. Roe, DeHavilland, and English Electric to form the Hawker-Siddley conglomerate. DeHavilland's project the HS 121 Trident had already been finalised and construction of a prototype was well underway when the merger occured. By the time Saunders Roe finished the Prototype Duchess in 1964, the HS Trident was already being flight tested.

The first Prototype AC for the Duchess was rolled out in the summer of 1964 onto the ramp at Saro's East Cowes facilities. The engines were run up and ground tests ensued. Taxi tests and braking tests were begun as well, by 1965, a flight test was certain.

The blow came rather abruptly when in February of 1965, HS management decided that having two large, technologically daring AC in production was going to dent their sales figures, and drive R &D budget over it's limits. Besides, the Duchess had no customers as of yet, while orders were already in place for the Trident from BEA. So HS demanded that all production worjk on the Duchess be terminated and the prototype be destroyed

So in March of 1965 the Duchess was taxied to a corner of the East Cowes ramp and a second unfinished structural test specimen was parked next to her. The next week, contractors were brought in to uncerimoniously demolish the two aircraft, the 10 RR Conway engines of the prototype being salvaged and returned to RR Derby for reconditioning for VC10 use No surviving component of the prototype aircraft exists. It was rumoured that one of the "rams horn" control sticks still exists, but no one has been shure

TECHNICAL: The Duchess shares the same dimensions of the Westminster, but with a sharper sweepback of the wings and tail. Power is supplied by 10 Rolls Royce Conway RCo. Mk.12's producing 35,000 pounds of thrust each. There are two engines installed in a "package" which is buried in the wing leading edges. The entire"package" of two engines, and accessory drives can be removed and lowered out of the wing for maintenance. Automatic shutters close off an engine intake if it has to be shut down.
A SNECMA Artouste gas turbine APU is located in the right wing fillet, to supply electricity AC and hydraulic power to the systems while the engines are down.

Hydraulics control every aspect of this aircraft from brakes and nosewheel steering, to the triple redundant control surfaces, as well as unique features like powered sliding passenger doors, that slide overhead to allow egress, and an oleo-pneumatic leveling system that transfers hydraulic pressure btween both main undercarriages and the nose undercarriage to reduce "roll" and bounce during taxiing. A Dunlop skid control system keeps the BF Goodrich multi disk brakes from locking up during deceleration.

The Duchess also benefited from an early version of a Category III Blind landing system, a device which would be commonplace on the HS Trident, and later the Lockheed Tristar. Duchess also benefited from a flux-gated compass system and an N1 high latitude gyrocompass which all predated Inertial navigation for at least another decade.