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This was a huge airliner built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company in 1949
to fly a large number of passengers on transatlantic routes from
England to the United States. The plane was delivered in 1949, only to
prove a complete commercial failure when airlines felt the plane was
too large and expensive to be useful. Although sized larger than a
Boeing 747, it carried only 60 to 80 passengers. In the end only one
example would be built, which was later broken up in 1953 for scrap,
along with an uncompleted second fuselage.
In
1942, during World War II, the US and UK agreed to split responsibility
for aircraft construction; the US would concentrate on transport
aircraft while the UK would concentrate on their heavy bombers. This
would leave the UK with little experience in transport construction at
the end of the war, so in 1943 a committee met under the leadership of
Lord Brabazon of Tara in order to investigate the future needs of the
British civilian airliner market.
The
committee delivered a report, later known as the Brabazon Report,
calling for the construction of four of five general designs they
studied. Type I was a large transatlantic airliner, Type III a smaller
airliner for the empire air routes, and Type IV a jet powered 500mph
airliner. The Type I and IV were considered to be very important to the
industry, notably the jet powered Type IV which would give England a
commanding lead in jet transports.
Bristol had already studied a large bomber design starting as early as
1937, and then the Air Ministry published a tender for a new
super-heavy bomber design in 1942 they dusted off their original work
and updated it for their newer and much more powerful Bristol Centaurus
engines. This led to a design with a range of 5,000 miles, 225 foot
wing span, and eight engines buried in the wings driving four pusher
propellers, and enough fuel for transatlantic range. This "100 ton
bomber" was in many ways the British analog to the US's B-29, although
much larger and more capable. However the Air Ministry later changed
their mind and decided to continue to pursue versions of the Avro
Lancaster (leading to the Avro Lincoln) instead.
Only a year later the Brabazon Report was published and Bristol was
able to respond with a slightly modified version of their bomber to
fill the needs for the Type I requirement. Their earlier work was
exactly the sort of performance the Brabazon committee was looking for,
and they were given a contract for two prototype aircraft. After
further work on the design a final concept was published in November
1944. It was for a 177 ft fuselage with 230 ft wingspan (35 ft more
than a Boeing 747), powered by eight Bristol Centaurus 18-cylinder
radial engines nested in pairs in the wing. These drove eight paired
counter-rotating propellers on four forward-facing nacelles.
The
Brabazon Report was backward-thinking in one aspect however. When
considering the people who would fly in the aircraft they designed,
they thought in the context of wealthy people who were the only ones
able to afford it at that point. The idea that a larger aircraft would
make flying less expensive never appears to have occurred to them.
Instead they assumed that the wealthy flying the plane would consider a
long trip by air to be uncomfortable, and they designed the Type I for
luxury, demanding 200 cubic feet of room for every passenger, and 270
for luxury. This is about three times the interior room of a small car.
In
order to meet these requirements the Type 167 initially specified a
huge 25 foot diameter fuselage (about 5 ft greater than a Boeing 747)
with upper and lower decks. This enclosed sleeping berths for 80
passengers, a dining room, 37 seat movie theatre, promenade and bar; or
day seats for 150 people. The Committee recommended a narrower fuselage
designed for 50 passengers. BOAC agreed, but preferred a design for
only 25 passengers. An agreement with the airline eventually led to an
interior layout housing a forward area with six compartments, each for
six passengers and a seventh for just three; a mid-section above the
wing with 38 seats arranged around tables in groups of four with a
pantry and galley; and a rear area with 23 seats in an aft-facing movie
theatre with a cocktail bar and lounge.
A
tremendous amount of effort was put into weight savings. The Type 167
used a number of non-standard gauges of skinning in order to tailor
every panel to the strength required, thereby saving several tones of
metal. The large span and mounting of the engines close inboard,
together with structural weight economies, demanded some new measure to
prevent bending of wing surfaces in turbulence. A system of gust
alleviation was developed for the Brabazon, using servos triggered from
a probe in the aircraft's nose. Hydraulic power units were also
designed to operate the giant control surfaces. The Brabazon was the
first aircraft with 100% powered flying controls, the first with
electric engine controls, the first with high-pressure hydraulics, and
the first with AC electrics.
under construction
Building the aircraft was a challenge in itself. Bristol's factory in
Filton was far too small to handle what was one of the largest aircraft
in the world, and the local 2,000ft runway was too short to launch it.
Construction of the first prototype's fuselage started in October 1945
in another hanger while a considerably larger assembly hall was built
for finally assembly and the runway was lengthened to 8,000ft.
In
1946 it was decided to make the second prototype based on the Bristol
Coupled Proteus turboprop engines instead of the less powerful Centarus,
increasing cruising speed to 330mph from about 260 while reducing the
empty weight by about 10,000lb. This would be known as the Brabazon
Mark II, which would be able to cross the Atlantic in a reduced 12
hours.
The
Mk.I aircraft rolled out for engine runs in December 1948, and flew for
the first time on September 4th , 1949. Four days later it was
presented at the Farnborough Air Show before starting testing in
earnest. During June 1950 she visited London's Heathrow Airport, making
a number of successful takeoffs and landings, and was demonstrated at
the 1951 Paris Air Show. By this point BOAC had lost any interest in
the design, if it ever had any, and although some interest was shown by
BEA on flying the prototype itself, various problems that would be
expected of a prototype meant it never received an airworthiness
certificate.
By
1952 about £3.4m had been spent on development and it showed no signs
of being purchased by any airline. In March the British government
announced that work on the second prototype had been postponed. In
October 1953, after less than 400 hours flying time, the first
prototype was broken up, along with the uncompleted Mk.II prototype.
All that remains are a few parts at the Bristol Industrial Museum and
Museum of Flight.
Although considered a failure and a white elephant, the record on the
Brabazon is not at all unfavourable. At least half of the money spent
on the project was put into infrastructure, including the massive
hangars and runway at Filton. This meant that Bristol was now in an
excellent position to continue production of other designs. In addition
many of the techniques developed as a part of the Brabazon project were
applicable to any aircraft, not just airliners.
All
of this was put to good use. Bristol had also won the contract for the
"unimportant" Type III aircraft, which they delivered as the Bristol
Britannia. Using all of the advancements of the Brabazon meant it had
the best payload fraction of any aircraft up to that point, and kept
that record for a number of years. Although the Britannia was delayed
for a lengthy period after problems with the Type IV, the De Havilland
Comet, it would go on to be a workhorse for many airlines into the
1970s. The Britannia is still considered by many to be the ultimate
propeller driven airliner.
Specifications
:Passengers: 50-180
:Engines: 8 x Bristol Centaurus, 1864kW (2,650 hp)
:Wingspan: 70.1m 230 ft
:Length: 53.95m 177 ft
:Height: 15.24m 50 ft
:Wing area: 493.95m² 5,317 sq ft
:empty weight: 65816kg 145,100 lb
:takeoff weight: 131542kg 290,000 lb
:Max speed: 483kph, cruise speed: 402kph
:Ceiling: 7620m
:Range: 8850km 5,500 miles |
