Fly Past

28 FLYPAST April 2018

MUSEUMS AEROSPACE BRISTOL

There are also other products
built by the Bristol company,
including a tram and a car. The
former is restored and repainted
on one side and conserved in
as-found condition on the other,
giving a good impression of its
vintage.

Delta display
The main attraction at Aerospace
Bristol is of course BAC/
Aérospatiale Concorde G-BOAF,
beautifully presented within its own
custom-built hangar. It’s possible
to look around and underneath
the Mach 2-capable airliner, and
to walk through part of it. Like the
Lockheed SR-71, it remains one of

those few aircraft that are visually

striking, and even surprising, when

viewed from any angle.

Unlike the Concorde on display

at Duxford, which was mostly used

for trials work, Alpha-Foxtrot is a

pure airliner and being on board

gives you a small sense of what it

was like to fly in as a passenger.

Even that distinctive, hard to

define airliner ‘smell’ survives. As

you enter through its surprisingly

small door, it feels as if the

machine is just sleeping, and could

quite easily fire up and take off.

Viewed from the outside,

images and documentary footage

are projected against its front

starboard side every few minutes.

They detail parts of the aircraft’s

history and capture some of the

emotion attached to it. A separate

room houses a simulator and

examples of the rather gaudy

passenger seats used in the

transport’s early days.

“Every British Concorde made its

maiden flight from Filton’s runway,”

says marketing manager Adam

Jones. “The one we have is the last

one to be built and the last to fly.

It landed here for the final time in

November 2003 and now thankfully

has a permanent roof over its head.

It was vital to create a fitting home

for Alpha-Foxtrot and show it off to

the best possible effect.

“It’s obviously hugely important

because it’s a magnificent and

famous aircraft that everyone

knows, and it’s where the public

and media interest begins.

We’ve also got a Concorde

training cockpit which has been

refurbished and illuminated. It’s

used as a simulator and, while it’s

not open all the time, providing

we’ve got volunteers or a host

available, people can sit in it and

experience a ‘flight’.”

Another subject of media

interest in recent months is Bristol

Freighter NZ5911, which has been

transported from New Zealand

• where it once served with the
  Royal New Zealand Air Force –
  to the country of its ‘birth’. It’s

Aerospace Bristol’s accurate reproduction of Babe G-EASQ is suspended from the ceiling. The Bristol Type 173 prototype is a unique survivor. It fl ew as G-ALBN from 1952 to 1959.

An archive view of Britannias being

constructed at Filton. KEY