The BAe ATP was an airliner designed as an evolution of the Avro 748. The fuel crisis and increasing worries about aircraft noise led business planners at British Aerospace to believe that there was a market for a short-range, low-noise, fuel-efficient turboprop aircraft. The airframe of the Avro 748 was redesigned with a lengthened 26.01 m body and a 30.62 m wing span. Minor modifications were made to the nose and tail shapes, as well as smaller windows on a shorter pitch. The twin Rolls-Royce Dart engines were replaced with Pratt & Whitney Canada PW126 fuel efficient engines. A custom designed, slow-turning, six-blade propeller was developed by Hamilton Standard.