Fly Past

68 RAF CENTENARY CELEBRATION PATROLLERS AND AIRLIFTERS

T

he British government’s

Brabazon Committee, which

was created during World

War Two to consider the post-war

requirement for airliners, resulted

in a mis-match of aircraft – many of

which were spectacular failures.

Although the Bristol Britannia

doesn’t fall into that category, it

could have achieved so much more

with good management and the

support of the British Overseas

Airways Corporation (BOAC). The

aircraft was designed to meet the

committee’s Type III requirement

(for a 100,000lb MTOW medium-

range aircraft, servicing the British

Empire on multi-hop routes) and

was envisaged as a replacement for

the piston-powered Douglas DC-6

and Lockheed Constellation.

In April 1947, BOAC also

issued its own, less demanding,

requirement for a Medium-Range

Empire (MRE) carrier with 48

seats and either Bristol Centaurus

radial or Napier Nomad compound

diesel engines. Turboprops were also

considered, although they were still

thought of as immature technology.

Bosses at BOAC would not

commit to a production order but

the Ministry of Supply (MoS) did,

ordering three prototypes of Bristol’s

Model 175 on July 5, 1948. One was

to have Centaurus engines and two

were to be capable of being fitted

with Bristol Proteus turboprops

under development at the time.

TROUBLESOME

POWERPLANT

The Bristol Proteus engine had been

developed specifically for use in the

Bristol Brabazon II and Saunders

Roe Princess (which would

ultimately be cancelled) and was

designed to have air fed via a wing

leading edge inlet. It was unreliable

and beset with technical problems,

producing just 1,500shp (1,119kW)

instead of the promised 3,000shp

(2,237kW).

In January 1949, Dr Stanley

Hooker joined Bristol to tackle

the many problems the Proteus

presented. He later described the

the aircraft landed safely and was

sufficiently ‘sorted’ to make a debut

public appearance at the SBAC

Airshow at Farnborough less than a

month later. Onlookers commented

on the Britannia’s quietness and the

aircraft soon earned the nickname

‘Whispering Giant’.

BOAC remained sceptical of

the turboprop engines and when

the airline’s Comet jetliners were

grounded due to catastrophic

pressurisation problems, it forced ever

more stringent tests on the Britannia.

The situation was not helped when

the second prototype was written off

in December 1953, after an engine

failure forced it to belly land on

the Severn estuary. It was late 1955

before the first of 15 production

examples of the Britannia 102 were

handed to BOAC for crew training,

and the aircraft did not enter

commercial service until February

1956. The airline operated it with
      six-across seating, accommodating
      90 passengers.

MILITARY SERVICE

Bristol created the Series 250

combination cargo/passenger

aircraft to meet a perceived demand

from the airlines, but in the end

the only buyer was the RAF, which

obtained 22 Series 253s as Britannia

C.1s and three Series 252s as

Britannia C.2s. Both variants had

a forward cargo door, a reinforced

powerplant as “the most difficult

engine in history” and was forced

to redesign it completely. Had

Hooker known the Brabazon and

Princess would be cancelled, he

would possibly have scrapped the

air inlet requirement and redesigned

the engine to ‘suck’ air in the

conventional manner – saving many

years of subsequent woes.

Hooker’s newly created Proteus 3

ran in May 1952 and was 1,000lb

(454kg) lighter than its predecessor.

It produced 3,780shp (2,819kW),

plus an additional 1,180lb (880kW)

of residual thrust. The success led

to the MoS scrapping plans for

a Centaurus-powered prototype

and the first Model 175, by now

patriotically named Britannia, would

be powered by turboprops.

The airframe itself was designed

by a team led by Dr Archibald E

Russell and featured a conventional

12ft diameter pressurised fuselage

mated with a large wing, featuring

double-slotted flaps. The flying

controls were unusual for their time

and included servo tabs moved by

the pilot which, in turn, electrically

moved the main control surfaces.

The prototype Britannia

(G-ALBO) flew on August 16,

1952 with Bill Pegg in the captain’s

seat; there were difficulties, with

smoke rising from below the cabin

floor and one main undercarriage

leg refusing to lock down, but

1959 TO 1976

BRITANNIA

BRISTOL

1918 2018

BRITANNIA

Right

Britannia C.1 XL660

departs RAF Lyneham.

The aircraft was

delivered in April 1960

and named ‘Alphard’,

but was sold into

private hands in 1976,

becoming G-BEMZ with

Air Faisel. Like many

Britannias, the airframe

eventually migrated to

Zaire and fl ew as both

A60-HMS and 9Q-CGP,

before being scrapped

in the mid-1980s. ALL

KEY UNLESS STATED