During the 1960s, BAC, having become interested in the prospects for developing successors to its existing airliners, such as the Vickers VC10, embarked upon a series of studies, initially centring on an enlarged double-decker version of the VC10, commonly referred to as the Super VC10.
After this concept failed to gain favour and the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) selected the American Boeing 747 instead, the company decided to refocus its efforts on a smaller aircraft partially based upon its successful One-Eleven airliner instead.
Following the British decision to withdraw from the Airbus programme in 1969, BAC quickly revisited its designs for the Two-Eleven and refreshed them to produce an updated proposal, known as the Three-Eleven.
In Britain, the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) was no exception, showing significant interest in the requirements of both civil and military operators, to which it considered various measures and approaches to respond with.
[2] In the first half of the following year, BAC submitted its proposals for the production of two separate double-decker versions of the VC10, which was commonly referred to as the Super VC10; however, it was quickly recognised that substantial support from the British government would be required for the initiative to succeed, involving "several tens of millions of pounds".
[3] According to aviation author Derek Wood, the enlarged double-decker, which was to be equipped with the proposed Rolls-Royce RB178 turbofan engine, would have had good commercial prospects, yet financing for the programme was not forthcoming, and the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) ultimately opted to procure the rival Boeing 747 instead.
[4] The idea of European co-operation had become increasingly palatable from a political standpoint; the British government was keen to pursue some of the joint development opportunities being promoted, including that of a 'European Airbus'.
As such, by August 1967, the company was stating the proposed airliner would now be provided with superior airfield performance via the availability of greater thrust, which had been increased by 20 per cent over the initial design.
[6] BAC was speculated to have welcomed such news and seen it as encouraging, not being part of the European Airbus programme (as distinct from rival Hawker Siddeley) and having little airliner work for the future as the One-Eleven project wound down.
It was a widebody airliner, in a similar class in terms of size, weight, and range, to the original and somewhat smaller European Airbus which was then in the early stages of development.
[7] At the time, the Three-Eleven was widely assumed to have emerged with encouragement from some British government circles and individuals that were close to Rolls-Royce, who were anxious to have a fall-back option in case the European Airbus failed.
[7] In its application, the company claimed that it had an established order book for between 40 and 50 options to procure the tentative airliner, while the development costs were estimated to be £140 million, half of which was being sought from the British government.
While the government deliberated on its response to BAC's submission, the company decided to expend £4 million of its own money on the programme in order to continue to refine its proposal.