How our miserly MPS clipped the Queen’s wings
PLANS to replace the Queen’s ageing propeller-driven aircraft with a new luxury jetliner in 1980 were scuppered by a Cabinet row over cost, declassified files have revealed.
At the time, the main aircraft of the Queen’s Flight, used to transport senior members of the Royal Family and government ministers on overseas trips, were three elderly Hawker Siddeley Andovers.
First entering RAF service in 1966 as a troop transport, the twin-engined Andover was judged to be “slow, of poor range, uncomfortable and unimpressive” in a Government report on the future of the Queen’s Flight, and by 1980 was due to be replaced.
On February 18, 1980 Defence Secretary Francis Pym’s principal private secretary Brian Norbury wrote to Downing Street, pointing out that “the arrival of the Queen on overseas visits in such an old aircraft does nothing for British prestige.”
A proposal was put forward to retire the Andovers and replace them with a pair of modern British Aerospace 1-11 jetpowered airliners, which was the RAF’S preferred choice.
The PM’S private secretary Clive Whitmore wrote to the Ministry of Defence stating that “it was important that when the Queen and senior ministers went abroad, they travelled in highquality modern British aircraft.”
However, the MOD, which was responsible for funding the Queen’s Flight, made it clear that, at a time when it was suffering major cuts to the defence budget, it would be unable to meet the £14million costs of the jets.
Geoffrey Pattie, the Under Secretary of State for Defence, wrote to No 10 pointing out that “the current budgets are so tight that a sum, even of this comparatively modest size, cannot be accommodated.”
Mr Pym also wrote to the Prime Minister asking “whether it would be politically wise to spend money buying the BAE 1-11s at a time when there were severe constraints on public expenditure”.
The then-occupant of No 10, Margaret Thatcher, suggested the cost of the two new aeroplanes could be spread across several government departments whose ministers also made
use of the Queen’s aircraft, but none was willing to meet the costs.
It meant that on December 8, 1980, Mr Whitmore wrote to the Defence Secretary reluctantly agreeing that no new aircraft for the Queen’s Flight should at present be procured. He wrote: “The Prime Minister
agrees that, in present economic circumstances, there is no alternative but to shelve for the time being the proposal to re-equip the Queen’s Flight.”
The elderly Andovers were finally retired from service in 1986 and replaced by three modern BAE 146 jets.