Even with f ive doors- three on the right
and two on the left of
the aircraft - access
to the cabin could be
restricted. The tail
was also often propped
up while on the
ground to prevent the
aircraft inadvertently
tipping backwards
during loading.
G-BCNO joined
Aurigny in 1978.
T
he Britten-Norman BN-2A Mk III Trislander was
designed by John Britten and Desmond Norman
in the late 1960s as a further development of the
company’s better-known Islander aircraft.
Research by the manufacturer showed that there was sufficient
market demand to warrant the development of a stretched
variant, and Britten-Norman concluded that any elongated
version would need to offer at least a 50% increase in capacity.
Compared to its twin-engined predecessor, the three-engined
Trislander therefore had a fuselage that was enlarged by 7ft 6in
(2.29m) to give it greater capacity for carrying passengers and
production versions could easily accommodate 16 in the cabin.
The extra weight of the airframe and human cargo necessitated
additional power and Britten Norman took inspiration from the
tri-jet airliners of the period; namely the American McDonnell
Douglas DC-10, Lockheed Tristar, Boeing 727 and the British-built Hawker Siddeley Trident.
Thought was initially given to mounting the third engine on
the nose, in a similar fashion to the Junkers Ju-52/3M but the
Islander’s tapered nose made this a difficult prospect. The design
team therefore set about grafting the engine onto the vertical tail.
This was far from a simple exercise however and involved
heavily modifying the tail itself and strengthening the rear
fuselage. The new aircraft also boasted a strengthened, fixed
tricycle landing gear with larger diameter wheels and tyres.
Power came from three 260hp Lycoming O-540-E4C5 flat-six
piston engines driving two-bladed constant speed propellers. The
designers also proposed a 350lb auxiliary rocket engine for use on
take-off, but the aircraft offered such impressive Short Take Off
& Landing (STOL) characteristics that it was not needed.
To reduce cost the Trislander prototype (G-ATWU) was
actually built using the airframe from the now-surplus secondTrislander
The Trislander was one of the most distinctive aircraft ever produced
in the UK and much loved by pilots and passengers alike. To mark the
recent retirement of Aurigney’s final examples, Paul Belben looks back at
this remarkable machine and its links to the Channel Islands.Britten-Norman’s Three-Engined Island Hopper
24 AIRLINER Classics 2018