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121-644: The Bristol Type 167 Brabazon was a large British piston-engined propeller -driven airliner designed by the Bristol Aeroplane Company to fly transatlantic routes between the UK and the United States. The type was named Brabazon after the Brabazon Committee and its chairman, Lord Brabazon of Tara , which had developed the specification to which the airliner was designed. While Bristol had studied

242-586: A cocktail bar , and lounge area. According to author Stephan Wilkinson, the decision to focus on comfort over other qualities such as speed and payload had been a historic preoccupation of Britain operators to specifically tailor their services towards wealthy travellers, and noted that as having been a key pre-war ethos of the British airline Imperial Airways . Meanwhile, some figures within the aircraft industry were forecasting heavy demand from passengers then relying on ocean liners . To meet these varied requirements,

363-486: A heavy bomber design that would be capable of carrying a payload of at least 15 tons of bombs. In response, Bristol dusted off their original work and updated it to incorporate their newer and substantially more powerful Bristol Centaurus engines. The Bristol design team, led by L. G. Frise and Archibald Russell , worked with several key performance parameters. Those included a range of 5,000 mi (8,000 km), 225 ft (69 m) wingspan, eight engines buried in

484-642: A tandem rotor civil helicopter. The result was the 13-seat Type 173 , which made its first flight in Filton in 1952. Five examples were built for evaluation purposes. Although no airlines ordered the Type 173, it led to military designs, of which the Type 192 went into service with the RAF as the Belvedere . First flying in 1958, 26 were built in total. Pursuing the idea of a civil tandem rotor helicopter, Hafner and his team developed

605-419: A 'guarantee to fly', Sir George succeeded in getting 15,000 francs compensation from Zodiac. After this failure, the company decided to embark upon designing its own aircraft to serve as a successor. Drawings were prepared by George Challenger for an aircraft based on a successful design by Henri Farman whose dimensions had been published in the aeronautical press. These drawings were produced in little over

726-553: A 50% share of the new company, with Hawker Siddeley group holding the other 50%. In 1966, Bristol Siddeley was purchased by Rolls-Royce , leaving the latter as the only major aero-engine company in Britain. From 1967, Bristol Siddeley's operations became the "Bristol Engine Division" and the "Small Engine Division" of Rolls-Royce, identified separately from Rolls-Royce's existing "Aero Engine Division". A number of Bristol Siddeley engines continued to be developed under Rolls-Royce including

847-597: A capacity of 1,820 L (64 cu ft), making a total capacity of 25,480 L (900 cu ft) for the largest versions. For piston engines, an engine's capacity is the engine displacement , in other words the volume swept by all the pistons of an engine in a single movement. It is generally measured in litres (l) or cubic inches (c.i.d., cu in, or in ) for larger engines, and cubic centimetres (abbreviated cc) for smaller engines. All else being equal, engines with greater capacities are more powerful and consumption of fuel increases accordingly (although this

968-698: A circular groove in the piston head. The rings fit closely in the groove and press lightly against the cylinder wall to form a seal, and more heavily when higher combustion pressure moves around to their inner surfaces. It is common to classify such engines by the number and alignment of cylinders and total volume of displacement of gas by the pistons moving in the cylinders usually measured in cubic centimetres (cm or cc) or litres (l) or (L) (US: liter). For example, for internal combustion engines, single and two-cylinder designs are common in smaller vehicles such as motorcycles , while automobiles typically have between four and eight, and locomotives and ships may have

1089-686: A common gearbox. This would have increased the Brabazon's cruising speed, from 260 to 330 mph (420–530 km/h), and its ceiling, while reducing the aircraft's empty weight by about 10,000 lb (4,540 kg). This Brabazon Mark II would have been able to cross the Atlantic from London to New York in a reduced time of 12 hours. However, by 1950, development of the Proteus engine had run into substantial difficulties, being both overweight and underpowered, and being subject to fatigue issues at one stage. Although

1210-469: A cylinder to drive a reciprocating engine in a local-pollution-free urban vehicle. Torpedoes may use a working gas produced by high test peroxide or Otto fuel II , which pressurize without combustion. The 230 kg (510 lb) Mark 46 torpedo , for example, can travel 11 km (6.8 mi) underwater at 74 km/h (46 mph) fuelled by Otto fuel without oxidant . Quantum heat engines are devices that generate power from heat that flows from

1331-418: A dozen cylinders or more. Cylinder capacities may range from 10 cm or less in model engines up to thousands of liters in ships' engines. The compression ratio affects the performance in most types of reciprocating engine. It is the ratio between the volume of the cylinder, when the piston is at the bottom of its stroke, and the volume when the piston is at the top of its stroke. The bore/stroke ratio

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1452-485: A gigantic hall for performing final assembly of up to eight Brabazons was constructed; at the time of construction, the hall was the largest hangar in the world. the designer of the new assembly hall, T. P. O'Sullivan , was subsequently awarded the Telford Premium for the work. The runway was lengthened to 8,000 ft (2,440 m) and widened; this extension had necessitated the controversial compulsory relocation of

1573-406: A hot to a cold reservoir. The mechanism of operation of the engine can be described by the laws of quantum mechanics . Quantum refrigerators are devices that consume power with the purpose to pump heat from a cold to a hot reservoir. In a reciprocating quantum heat engine, the working medium is a quantum system such as spin systems or a harmonic oscillator. The Carnot cycle and Otto cycle are

1694-646: A hundred aircraft and the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) consisted of only seven squadrons equipped with a miscellany of aircraft types, none of them armed. Official War Office policy was to purchase only aircraft designed by the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE), and Bristol had already built a number of their B.E.2 two-seater reconnaissance aircraft. However, pressure from the pilots of the RFC and Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) led to orders being placed for

1815-499: A large number of unusual varieties of piston engines that have various claimed advantages, many of which see little if any current use: Bristol Aeroplane Company The Bristol Aeroplane Company , originally the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company , was both one of the first and one of the most important British aviation companies, designing and manufacturing both airframes and aircraft engines . Notable aircraft produced by

1936-637: A licensed and improved version of an aircraft manufactured in France by société Zodiac , a biplane designed by Gabriel Voisin . This aircraft had been exhibited at the Paris Aero Salon in 1909 and Sir George had been impressed by the quality of its construction. Accordingly, a single example was purchased and shipped to England to be shown at the Aero Show at Olympia in March 1910, and construction of five more begun at

2057-612: A mainstay of the RAF during the 1920s. More than 5,300 of the type were produced and the Fighter remained in service until 1931. Another aircraft designed at this time was the Bristol Monoplane Scout . Although popular with pilots, the success of this aircraft was limited by War Office prejudice against monoplanes and only 130 were built. It was considered that its relatively high landing speed of 50 mph made it unsuitable for use under

2178-524: A midsection above the wing – the wing was 6 feet (1.8 m) deep at that point – which accommodated 38 seats arranged around tables in groups of four along with a pantry and galley , and a rear area with 23 seats in an aft-facing cinema, complete with a cocktail bar and lounge. Similar to the Saunders-Roe Princess , the Brabazon concept was a fusion of prewar and postwar thinking, using highly advanced design and engineering to build an aircraft that

2299-503: A much larger design, the Type 194. This was in an advanced state of design when the Bristol Helicopter Division was merged, as a result of government influence, with the helicopter interests of other British aircraft manufacturers ( Westland , Fairey and Saunders-Roe ) to form Westland Helicopters in 1960. When the competing Westland Westminster was cancelled, the management of the combined company allowed development of

2420-502: A new aircraft manufactured by Bristol, known as the Scout . In 1915, Barnwell returned from France, his skills as pilot being considered to be of much less value than his ability as a designer. At this time Leslie Frise , newly graduated from Bristol University's engineering department, was recruited by Barnwell. In 1916, the company's founder Sir George died; he was succeeded in managing the company by his son Stanley. The first project that

2541-771: A presence at the Filton site where the Bristol Aeroplane Company was located. The British and Colonial Aeroplane Company, Ltd was founded in February 1910 by Sir George White , chairman of the Bristol Tramways and Carriage Company , along with his son Stanley and his brother Samuel, to commercially exploit the fast-growing aviation sector. Sir George met with the American aviation pioneer Wilbur Wright in France in 1909 by chance, during which he became aware of aviation's business potential. Unlike many aviation companies of

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2662-566: A prototype Bristol Badger in May 1919. For £15,000 Bristol got the Cosmos design team, headed by Roy Fedden , along with a small number of completed engines and tooling. Although it was to be several years before Bristol showed any profit from the aero engine division, the Jupiter engine eventually proved enormously successful; indeed, during the inter-war period, the aero-engine division was more successful than

2783-403: A reciprocating engine is proportional to the volume of the combined pistons' displacement. A seal must be made between the sliding piston and the walls of the cylinder so that the high pressure gas above the piston does not leak past it and reduce the efficiency of the engine. This seal is usually provided by one or more piston rings . These are rings made of a hard metal, and are sprung into

2904-694: A separate helicopter division in the Weston-super-Mare factory, under helicopter pioneer Raoul Hafner . This facility was taken over by Westland in 1960. Other post-war projects included Bristol Cars , which used pre-war BMW designs as the basis for the Bristol 400 . Vehicle production was conducted at Patchway , Bristol. The engine developed for the Bristol 400 found its way into many successful motor cars manufactured by other companies, such as Cooper , Frazer Nash and AC and, in 1954 and 1955 , powered

3025-480: A sequence of strokes that admit and remove gases to and from the cylinder. These operations are repeated cyclically and an engine is said to be 2-stroke , 4-stroke or 6-stroke depending on the number of strokes it takes to complete a cycle. The most common type is 4-stroke, which has following cycles. The reciprocating engine developed in Europe during the 18th century, first as the atmospheric engine then later as

3146-460: A small tractor configuration biplane and a monoplane . Both of these were exhibited at the 1911 Aero Show at Olympia but neither was flown successfully. At this time, both Challenger and Low left the company to join the newly established aircraft division of the armament firm Vickers . Their place was taken by Pierre Prier , the former chief instructor at the Blériot flying school at Hendon : he

3267-424: A total of 50 passengers. The British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) agreed with that recommendation, and also expressed its preference for a design accommodating only 25 passengers. In August 1943, an agreement with the airline led to the selection of an interior layout which contained a forward area housing six compartments, each one for six passengers, along with a seventh compartment for just three passengers,

3388-402: A week, and Sir George promptly authorised the construction of twenty examples. The first aircraft to be completed was taken to Larkhill for flight trials, where it performed its first flight on 20 July 1910, piloted by Maurice Edmonds. The aircraft proved entirely satisfactory during flight tests. The first batch equipped the two training schools, as well as serving as demonstration machines;

3509-433: Is inside a cylinder , into which a gas is introduced, either already under pressure (e.g. steam engine ), or heated inside the cylinder either by ignition of a fuel air mixture ( internal combustion engine ) or by contact with a hot heat exchanger in the cylinder ( Stirling engine ). The hot gases expand, pushing the piston to the bottom of the cylinder. This position is also known as the bottom dead center (BDC), or where

3630-586: Is not to be confused with fuel efficiency , since high efficiency often requires a lean fuel-air ratio, and thus lower power density. A modern high-performance car engine makes in excess of 75 kW/L (1.65 hp/in ). Reciprocating engines that are powered by compressed air, steam or other hot gases are still used in some applications such as to drive many modern torpedoes or as pollution-free motive power. Most steam-driven applications use steam turbines , which are more efficient than piston engines. The French-designed FlowAIR vehicles use compressed air stored in

3751-412: Is not true of every reciprocating engine), although power and fuel consumption are affected by many factors outside of engine displacement. Reciprocating engines can be characterized by their specific power , which is typically given in kilowatts per litre of engine displacement (in the U.S. also horsepower per cubic inch). The result offers an approximation of the peak power output of an engine. This

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3872-394: Is the fictitious pressure which would produce the same amount of net work that was produced during the power stroke cycle. This is shown by: where A p {\displaystyle A_{p}} is the total piston area of the engine, S {\displaystyle S} is the stroke length of the pistons, and V d {\displaystyle V_{d}}

3993-459: Is the ratio of the diameter of the piston, or " bore ", to the length of travel within the cylinder, or "stroke". If this is around 1 the engine is said to be "square". If it is greater than 1, i.e. the bore is larger than the stroke, it is "oversquare". If it is less than 1, i.e. the stroke is larger than the bore, it is "undersquare". Cylinders may be aligned in line , in a V configuration , horizontally opposite each other, or radially around

4114-425: Is the total displacement volume of the engine. Therefore: Whichever engine with the larger value of MEP produces more net work per cycle and performs more efficiently. In steam engines and internal combustion engines, valves are required to allow the entry and exit of gases at the correct times in the piston's cycle. These are worked by cams, eccentrics or cranks driven by the shaft of the engine. Early designs used

4235-423: Is then fed through one or more, increasingly larger bore cylinders successively, to extract power from the steam at increasingly lower pressures. These engines are called compound engines . Aside from looking at the power that the engine can produce, the mean effective pressure (MEP), can also be used in comparing the power output and performance of reciprocating engines of the same size. The mean effective pressure

4356-567: The Bristol 450 sports prototype to class victories in the 24 Hours of Le Mans race. In 1953, S.H. Arnolt, a US car dealer who sold British sports cars, commissioned the Bristol Car Division to build a sports car for the US market, called the Arnolt-Bristol . It is estimated that about 177 were built before production ceased in 1958. In 1960, Sir George White was instrumental in preventing

4477-532: The Bristol Aeroplane Company, Ltd . During this time the company, acting under pressure from the Air Ministry , bought the aero-engine division of the bankrupt Cosmos Engineering Company , based in the Bristol suburb of Fishponds , to form the nucleus of a new aero-engine operation. There was already a good working relationship between Bristol Aircraft and Cosmos, the Cosmos Jupiter having been first flown in

4598-627: The British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) and Bristol Aero Engines merged with Armstrong Siddeley to form Bristol Siddeley . BAC went on to become a founding component of the nationalised British Aerospace , now BAE Systems . Bristol Siddeley was purchased by Rolls-Royce in 1966, who continued to develop and market Bristol-designed engines. The BAC works were in Filton , about 4 miles (6 km) north of Bristol city centre. BAE Systems , Airbus , Rolls-Royce , MBDA and GKN still have

4719-654: The Commonwealth of Nations . The committee, which had become known simply as the Brabazon Committee , delivered its report, which was likewise known as the Brabazon Report . The report called for the construction of a total of four of five designs they had studied. Of those designs, the Type I was a very large transatlantic airliner, the Type II was a short-haul airliner, the Type III

4840-452: The D slide valve but this has been largely superseded by piston valve or poppet valve designs. In steam engines the point in the piston cycle at which the steam inlet valve closes is called the cutoff and this can often be controlled to adjust the torque supplied by the engine and improve efficiency. In some steam engines, the action of the valves can be replaced by an oscillating cylinder . Internal combustion engines operate through

4961-562: The National Museum of Flight in Scotland. Although considered a failure and a white elephant , the record of the Brabazon is not entirely unfavourable. At least half of the large sums spent on the project had been expended upon the construction of infrastructure, including £6 million for new large hangars and an extended runway at Filton. These improvements meant that Bristol was in an excellent position to continue production of other designs;

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5082-703: The Olympus turbojet – including the joint development Bristol started with Snecma for Concorde – and the Pegasus . The astronomical names favoured by Bristol indicated their heritage in a Rolls-Royce lineup named after British rivers . The Bristol Aeroplane Company's Helicopter Division had its roots in 1944, when the helicopter designer Raoul Hafner , released from the Airborne Forces Experimental Establishment (AFEE), came to Bristol along with some members of his team. Under Hafner's direction,

5203-723: The Second World War , Bristol's most important aircraft was the Beaufighter heavy two-seat multirole aircraft, a long-range fighter, night fighter , ground attack aircraft and torpedo bomber . The type was used extensively by the RAF, other Commonwealth air forces and by the USAAF . The Beaufighter was derived from the Beaufort torpedo bomber, itself a derivative of the Blenheim. In 1940, shadow factories were set up at Weston-super-Mare for

5324-555: The Type 200 (a competitor of the Hawker Siddeley Trident ) and its derivatives, the Type 201 and Type 205. None of these designs were built. In 1959, Bristol was forced by Government policy to merge its aircraft interests with English Electric , Hunting Aircraft , and Vickers-Armstrongs to form the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Bristol formed a holding company which held a 20 per cent share of BAC, while English Electric and Vickers held 40 per cent each. In 1966,

5445-481: The United States . Having foreseen that the effective abandonment of any development in terms of civil aviation would put Britain's aviation industry at a substantial disadvantage once the conflict had come to an end, during 1943 a British government committee began meeting under the leadership of Lord Brabazon of Tara with the aim of investigating and forecasting the post-war civil aviation requirements of Britain and

5566-470: The steam engine . These were followed by the Stirling engine and internal combustion engine in the 19th century. Today the most common form of reciprocating engine is the internal combustion engine running on the combustion of petrol , diesel , liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) or compressed natural gas (CNG) and used to power motor vehicles and engine power plants . One notable reciprocating engine from

5687-454: The Brabazon had been cancelled due to a lack of military or civil orders. In the end, only the single prototype was flown, and it was broken up in 1953 for scrap, along with the incomplete, turboprop -powered Brabazon I Mk.II . During the Second World War , the British government made the decision to dedicate its aircraft industry to the production of combat aircraft and to source the majority of its transport aircraft from manufacturers in

5808-440: The Brabazon was demonstrated at the 1950 Farnborough Airshow, at which it performed a takeoff, clean configuration flypast and a landing. In June 1950, the Brabazon made a visit to London's Heathrow Airport , during which it made a number of successful takeoffs and landings; it was also demonstrated at the 1951 Paris Air Show . Gibb, who flew the aircraft as pilot-in-command on multiple flights, summarised his flying experiences with

5929-582: The Brabazon, Bristol were able to design the Britannia to possess the best payload fraction of any aircraft up to that time, and it held that record for a number of years. Although the Britannia was delayed after problems with the separate Type IV, the jet-powered de Havilland Comet , it went on to be a workhorse for many airlines into the 1970s. Data from Flight International. General characteristics Performance Related lists Piston engine There may be one or more pistons. Each piston

6050-468: The Brabazon. By this point, roughly £6 million had been spent on the programme and a further £2 million would have been required in order to complete the Mark II. In October 1953, after 164 flights totalling 382 hours' flying time, the first prototype was broken up and sold for £10,000 in scrap value, along with the uncompleted Mk.II prototype. All that remains are a few parts at the M Shed museum in Bristol and

6171-777: The Bristol holding company which held 20 per cent of BAC and 50 per cent of Bristol Siddeley engines was acquired by Rolls-Royce . Bristol also had the following holdings and subsidiary companies at this time:- Bristol Aerojet (50 per cent) – Bristol Aeroplane Co Australia – Bristol DE Mexico SA (78 per cent) – Motores Bristol De Cuba SA – Bristol Aeroplane Co of Canada – Bristol Aero Industries Ltd – Bristol Aeroplane Co USA – Spartan Air Services Ltd (46.5 per cent) – Bristol Aeroplane Co New Zealand – Bristol Aircraft Services Ltd – Bristol Aeroplane Plastics Ltd – SECA (30 per cent) – Short Bros & Harland (15.25 per cent) – SVENSK-ENGELSK Aero Service AB – TABSA (25 per cent) – Westland Aircraft Ltd (10 per cent). The Canadian Bristol group of companies

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6292-512: The British government announced that work on the second prototype had been postponed. The cancellation of the project was announced by the Minister of Supply ( Duncan Sandys ) on 17 July 1953 in the Commons, saying the programme had given all the useful technical knowledge it could but without any firm interest from either civil or military users, there was no justification for continuing to spend money on

6413-499: The Bulldog was retired from front line service. Since the Bulldog had started life as a private venture rather than an Air Ministry-sponsored prototype it could be sold to other countries, and Bulldogs were exported to, among others, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, and Australia. During this time, Bristol was noted for its preference for steel airframes, using members built up from high-tensile steel strip rolled into flanged sections rather than

6534-585: The Mexican Government to be installed in training schools throughout Mexico. Malcolm Roebuck was hired from Alfred Herbert Ltd along with William Walford Webb Woodward to supervise this project. In 1977, BAC was nationalised, along with Scottish Aviation and Hawker Siddeley , to form British Aerospace (BAe), which later became part of the now-privatised BAE Systems . The Canadian unit was acquired by Rolls-Royce Holdings and sold in 1997 to current owner Magellan Aerospace . A small number of records from

6655-583: The Proteus was slimmer than the Centaurus, the wing thickness was not to be reduced in the Mark II, but the leading edge would be extended around the engines. Other planned changes for the Brabazon Mark II included a revised wheel arrangement which would have enabled the type to use the majority of runways on both the North Atlantic and Empire routes. In December 1945, Bristol Chief Test Pilot Bill Pegg

6776-466: The RAF at this time was the Blenheim light bomber. In August 1938, Frank Barnwell was killed flying a light aircraft of his own design; Barnwell was succeeded as Bristol's Chief Designer by Leslie Frise . By the time war broke out in 1939, the Bristol works at Filton were the largest single aircraft manufacturing unit in the world, with a floor area of nearly 25 hectares (2,691,000 square feet). During

6897-474: The Type 167 specified a huge 25-foot (7.6 m)-diameter fuselage, which was about 5 ft (1.5 m) greater than the 1970 Boeing 747 "jumbo jet", with full-length upper and lower decks. That enclosed sleeping berths for 80 passengers, a dining room, 37-seat cinema, promenade and bar or, alternatively, day seats for 150 people. At one point, the Committee recommended the adoption of a narrower fuselage to house

7018-572: The Type 194 to continue, but it too failed to find a market. The Helicopter Division started out at the main Bristol Aeroplane Company site in Filton, but from 1955 it was moved to the Oldmixon factory in Weston-Super-Mare , which had built Blenheims during the War. The factory is now the site of The Helicopter Museum . Bristol did not systematically assign project type numbers until 1923, starting with

7139-500: The Type 90 Berkeley. In that year, they also retrospectively assigned type numbers in chronological order to all projects, built or not, from August 1914 onwards. Thus the Scouts A and B did not get a type number but the Scout C did and was the Type 1. The final Bristol project, numbered Type 225, was an unbuilt 1962 STOL transport. Of these 225 Types, 117 were built. This list does not include

7260-508: The Type I requirement. Bristol's earlier work had demonstrated the sort of performance that the Brabazon Committee had been looking for, and so the Committee authorised the firm to begin preliminary design of such an aircraft that year, with the proviso that work on wartime aircraft should not be disrupted by the project. Bristol was soon issued with a contract to produce a pair of prototype aircraft. In November 1944, after further work on

7381-483: The World War II era was the 28-cylinder, 3,500  hp (2,600 kW) Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major radial engine. It powered the last generation of large piston-engined planes before jet engines and turboprops took over from 1944 onward. It had a total engine capacity of 71.5 L (4,360 cu in), and a high power-to-weight ratio . The largest reciprocating engine in production at present, but not

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7502-472: The aircraft's giant control surfaces. A tremendous effort was put into saving weight across the aircraft. 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 tons of metal. Bristol employed revolutionary new machining and construction methods for drilling, milling, folding, and rolling many of the airframe's components. Rivets were sealed in aircraft dope to greatly reduce

7623-568: The aircraft, which gained the nickname of the Boxkite , went on to become a commercial success, a total of 76 being constructed. Many served in the company's flying schools and examples were sold to the War Office as well as a number of foreign governments. Although satisfactory by the standards of the day, the Boxkite was not capable of much further development and work soon was started on two new designs,

7744-402: The airfield's perimeter to witness takeoff. During this flight, it ascended to about 3,000 ft (910 m) at 160 mph (257 km/h) and landed at 115 mph (185 km/h), throttling back at 50 ft (15 m). The British press mainly reported favourably, one newspaper praising the aircraft as being "the queen of the skies, the largest land-plane ever built". Four days later,

7865-424: The airliner as it potentially offered a simpler and more powerful alternative to the original Centaurus powerplant. Other advantages of turboprops included lower vibration levels, which would increase passenger comfort, and better performance at higher altitudes. In 1946, it was decided to build the second prototype using eight paired Bristol Coupled Proteus turboprop engines driving four-bladed propellers through

7986-516: The assembly hall was soon being used for building another transatlantic aircraft, the Britannia . In addition, many of the techniques which had been developed during the Brabazon project were applicable to any aircraft, not just airliners. Bristol had also been awarded the contract for the Type III aircraft, for which they delivered the Britannia. By making use of the advances made during the development of

8107-465: The car division being lost during the wider company's merger with BAC. Accordingly, Bristol Cars Limited was formed, and remained within the Filton complex. Sir George retired in 1973 and Tony Crook purchased his share, becoming sole proprietor and managing director. Pre-fabricated buildings, marine craft and plastic and composite materials were also amongst the company's early post-war activities; these side-ventures were independently sold off. Bristol

8228-450: The company developed the new Bristol Perseus line of radials based on the sleeve valve principle, which developed into some of the most powerful piston engines in the world and continued to be sold into the 1960s. In 1956, the division was renamed Bristol Aero Engines and then merged with Armstrong Siddeley in 1958 to form Bristol Siddeley as a counterpart of the airframe-producing company mergers that formed BAC. Bristol retained

8349-636: The company in October 1914. Barnwell went on to become one of the world's foremost aeronautical engineers, and worked for the company until his death in 1938. The company expanded rapidly, establishing a second factory at the Brislington tramway works; the firm employed a total of 200 people by the outbreak of the First World War . At the outbreak of war in August 1914, Britain's military forces possessed just over

8470-506: The company include the 'Boxkite' , the Bristol Fighter , the Bulldog , the Blenheim , the Beaufighter , and the Britannia , and much of the preliminary work which led to Concorde was carried out by the company. In 1956 its major operations were split into Bristol Aircraft and Bristol Aero Engines . In 1959, Bristol Aircraft merged with several major British aircraft companies to form

8591-399: The company's Filton works. It was then transported to Brooklands for flight trials, where it immediately became apparent that the type had an unsatisfactory wing-section and lacked sufficient power; even though Bristol fitted the aircraft with a new set of wings, it only achieved a single brief hop on 28 May 1910, after which work on the type was abandoned. Since the machine had been sold with

8712-418: The controls and found the aircraft to be underpowered and very slow to respond to the controls. BOAC quickly decided it was not for them. Bristol had been subject to financial hardship, while development of the Proteus engine intended to power the envisioned and improved Brabazon Mark II was proving troublesome. Flight tests of the aircraft itself had revealed some fatigue issues in the inner wingbox area, while

8833-470: The crankshaft. Opposed-piston engines put two pistons working at opposite ends of the same cylinder and this has been extended into triangular arrangements such as the Napier Deltic . Some designs have set the cylinders in motion around the shaft, such as the rotary engine . In some steam engines, the cylinders may be of varying size with the smallest bore cylinder working the highest pressure steam. This

8954-506: The cylinder by this stroke . The exception is the Stirling engine , which repeatedly heats and cools the same sealed quantity of gas. The stroke is simply the distance between the TDC and the BDC, or the greatest distance that the piston can travel in one direction. In some designs the piston may be powered in both directions in the cylinder, in which case it is said to be double-acting . In most types,

9075-574: The day, that wasn't what the airlines wanted. They wanted to ram as many passengers as possible into the tube and give 'em lunch on their laps." At one point, although some interest was shown by British European Airways (BEA) for conducting operational flights using the prototype Brabazon itself, various problems that would typically be expected to be present on a prototype meant the aircraft would never receive an airworthiness certificate . By 1952, about £3.4 million had been spent on development and there were no signs of purchase by any airline. In March,

9196-415: The design, a final concept for the Type 167 was published. The final design featured a large 177 ft (54 m) fuselage, paired with a sizable wing. The wing, which had a 230 ft (70.1 m) wingspan, possessed an enormous internal volume, to house sufficient fuel for the transatlantic flights envisioned for the type. It was powered by eight Bristol Centaurus 18-cylinder radial engines , which were

9317-554: The difficulties associated with balancing the aircraft's range, load and defensive armament, the Ministry never took up any of the British manufacturer's designs. Instead, it was decided to continue development of the existing Avro Lancaster , which led to the production of the improved Avro Lincoln . In 1942, the Brabazon Report was published and Bristol chose to respond, submitting a slightly modified version of their bomber to fulfil

9438-426: The division produced two successful designs that were sold in quantity. The first, designated the Type 171 , had a shaky start after the wooden rotor blades of the second prototype failed on its first flight in 1949. Nevertheless, the Type 171, called Sycamore in military service, was sold to air forces around the world and 178 were built in total. After the Type 171, the Bristol Helicopter Division started work on

9559-409: The early history of this company are held within the papers of Sir George White at Bristol Archives (Ref. 35810/GW/T) ( online catalogue ). Other records at Bristol Record Office include the papers of Lionel Harris, an engineer at the Bristol Aeroplane Company in the 1940s (Ref. 42794) ( online catalogue ) The Bristol Engine Company was originally a separate entity, Cosmos Engineering , formed from

9680-470: The era, which were started by enthusiasts with little financial backing, British and Colonial was well funded from its outset. Sir George chose to establish a separate company from the Bristol Tramway Company, as the venture might be seen as too risky by many shareholders, and the new company's working capital of £25,000 was subscribed entirely by Sir George, his brother, and his son. The affairs of

9801-511: The field conditions of the Western Front, and the type's active service was limited to the Near East. By the end of the war, the company employed over 3,000 at its production works, which were split between Filton and Brislington. Its products had always been referred to by the name 'Bristol' and this was formalized in 1920, when British and Colonial was liquidated and its assets transferred to

9922-466: The firm's Banwell facility, it was eventually decided to expand the main Filton site to suit the Brabazon. Work on the project was slowed as Bristol's wartime commitments had to be met. Amongst the early physical steps was the construction of a full-scale wooden mockup in the old No. 2 Flight Shed so that components and fittings could be applied and tested. In October 1945, construction of the first prototype's fuselage commenced in an existing hangar while

10043-422: The inhabitants of the village of Charlton to neighbouring Patchway . During the early 1940s, the only means for providing propulsion to large aircraft was to produce increasingly complex and enlarged radial engines. The emergence of jet propulsion , specifically the turboprop engine, happened to coincide with the Brabazon's development. Accordingly, there was considerable interest in applying such an engine to

10164-401: The innovative features of the Brabazon was a purpose-developed gust-alleviation system, which used an assortment of servos that were triggered from a gust-sensing probe installed on the exterior of the aircraft's nose; an improved version of this system, along with fully automated trimming , was to have been deployed on the Brabazon Mark II. Hydraulic power units were also designed to operate

10285-408: The intended production aircraft, the prototype made high-profile public appearances at the 1950 Farnborough Airshow , Heathrow Airport , and the 1951 Paris Air Show . However, due to the high cost per seat mile compared to the alternatives, the Brabazon did not attract any firm orders, so the aircraft was a commercial failure. On 17 July 1953 Duncan Sandys , the Minister of Supply , announced that

10406-406: The largest aeroplanes ever built, being sized roughly between the much later Airbus A300 and Boeing 767 airliners. Despite its vast size, the Brabazon was designed to carry only 100 passengers, each one allowed an area about the size of the interior of a small car. On 4 September 1949 the first prototype made its maiden flight . In addition to participating in a flight test programme in support of

10527-588: The largest ever built, is the Wärtsilä-Sulzer RTA96-C turbocharged two-stroke diesel engine of 2006 built by Wärtsilä . It is used to power the largest modern container ships such as the Emma Mærsk . It is five stories high (13.5 m or 44 ft), 27 m (89 ft) long, and weighs over 2,300 metric tons (2,535 short tons ; 2,264 long tons ) in its largest 14 cylinders version producing more than 84.42 MW (113,209 bhp). Each cylinder has

10648-477: The late 1950s, the company undertook supersonic transport (SST) project studies, the Type 223 , which were later to contribute to Concorde . A research aircraft, the Type 188 , was constructed in the 1950s to test the feasibility of stainless steel as a material in a Mach 2.0 airframe. By the time the aircraft flew in 1962, the company was already part of BAC. In parallel with these supersonic studies, several subsonic designs were schemed in this period, including

10769-464: The light alloys more generally used in aircraft construction. On 15 June 1935, the Bristol Aeroplane Company became a public limited company . By this time, the company had a payroll of 4,200, mostly in the engine factory, and was well positioned to take advantage of the huge re-armament ordered by the British Government in May of that year. Bristol's most important contribution to the expansion of

10890-416: The linear movement of the piston is converted to a rotating movement via a connecting rod and a crankshaft or by a swashplate or other suitable mechanism. A flywheel is often used to ensure smooth rotation or to store energy to carry the engine through an un-powered part of the cycle. The more cylinders a reciprocating engine has, generally, the more vibration-free (smoothly) it can operate. The power of

11011-460: The most powerful British-built piston engines available at the time, each being capable of generating 2,650 horsepower (1,980 kW). These were set in pairs in the wing, and instead of using a common crankshaft, the paired engines each had their driveshafts angled towards an enormous central gearbox . They drove a series of eight paired contra-rotating propellers , which were set on four forward-facing nacelles. The Brabazon Report had assumed that

11132-409: The number required for airframe assembly. Significant emphasis had been placed upon simplifying the construction process and incorporating several manufacturing efficiencies. Some of the design and construction work for the aircraft was shared out to other British companies, such as Folland Aircraft . Manufacturing the Brabazon was found to be a challenge. During the first two years of the development,

11253-410: The ones most studied. The quantum versions obey the laws of thermodynamics . In addition, these models can justify the assumptions of endoreversible thermodynamics . A theoretical study has shown that it is possible and practical to build a reciprocating engine that is composed of a single oscillating atom. This is an area for future research and could have applications in nanotechnology . There are

11374-507: The parent company and Bristol came to dominate the market for air-cooled radial engines . Apart from providing engines for almost all Bristol's aircraft designs, the Jupiter and its successors powered an enormous number of aircraft built by other manufacturers. Bristol's most successful aircraft during this period was the Bristol Bulldog fighter, which formed the mainstay of Royal Air Force (RAF) fighter force between 1930 and 1937, when

11495-423: The piston forms the largest volume in the cylinder. The piston is returned to the cylinder top (top dead center) (TDC) by a flywheel , the power from other pistons connected to the same shaft or (in a double acting cylinder ) by the same process acting on the other side of the piston. This is where the piston forms the smallest volume in the cylinder. In most types the expanded or " exhausted " gases are removed from

11616-474: The post-war rapid contraction of military orders, Cosmos Engineering went bankrupt and the Air Ministry let it be known that it would be a good idea if the Bristol Aeroplane Company purchased it. The Jupiter competed with the Armstrong Siddeley Jaguar through the 1920s but Bristol put more effort into their design and, by 1929, the Jupiter was clearly superior. In the 1930s, and led by Roy Fedden,

11737-512: The pre-First World War automobile company Brazil-Straker . In 1917, Cosmos was asked to investigate air-cooled radial engines and, under Roy Fedden , produced what became the Cosmos Mercury , a 14-cylinder two-row (helical) radial, which they launched in 1918. This engine saw little use but the simpler nine-cylinder version known as the Bristol Jupiter was clearly a winning design. With

11858-454: The production of Beaufighters, and underground at Hawthorn, near Corsham , Wiltshire, for engine manufacture. Construction in the former stone quarry at Hawthorn took longer than expected and little production was achieved before the site closed in 1945. The company's war-time headquarters was located in the Royal West of England Academy , Clifton, Bristol. When the war ended, Bristol set up

11979-429: The projected operating costs for the Brabazon had been revised upwards as the programme had proceeded. BOAC, being unconvinced of the aircraft's merits, ultimately chose not to place any order for the type. Gibb stated of the situation: "the spec wasn't correct for post-war flying. The people who wrote the specs... conceived of an aeroplane with all this comfort, bunks, and a great dining room to eat in. And, of course, come

12100-534: The prospects of developing very large aircraft as bombers prior to and during the Second World War , it was the release of a report compiled by the Brabazon Committee which led the company to adapt its proposed bomber into a large civil airliner to meet the Type I specification for the long-distance transatlantic route. Initially designated the Type 167 , the proposed aircraft had a 25-foot (7.6 m)-diameter fuselage, containing full upper and lower decks on which passengers would be seated in luxurious conditions. It

12221-466: The prototype was presented at Society of British Aircraft Constructors ' Airshow at Farnborough ; according to author Philip Kaplan, the timing of the first flight had been chosen to enable this high-profile early appearance. The Brabazon's appearance at Farnborough led to the adoption of a formal and deliberate company policy to carry out much of the aircraft's test programme in the vicinity of various British cities to spread public awareness. Accordingly,

12342-481: The question of how and where to manufacture the aircraft was amongst the biggest issues that had preoccupied the design team and delayed progress on the project. Bristol's existing factory at Bristol Filton Airport proved to be too small to handle what was one of the largest aircraft in the world, let alone producing the type in quantity, while the adjacent 2,000 ft (610 m) runway was too short for it to take off from. While considerations were made for developing

12463-461: The requirements of an aircraft capable of conducting routine transatlantic flights, which had led to projections of the necessary size, weight and range of such an airliner. Amongst those, it was determined that, in order to be profitable, a minimum payload of 100 passengers should be carried by the type. In 1942, the Air Ministry issued a draft operational requirement from the Air Staff, which sought

12584-586: The same time as the termination, Bristol decided to focus on development of a large turboprop-powered airliner, known as the Britannia . Capable of traversing transatlantic routes, it proved a commercial success; both it and the Freighter were produced in quantity during the 1950s. However, sales of the Britannia were poor and only 82 were built, primarily due to its protracted development; having been ordered by BOAC on 28 July 1949 and first flown on 16 August 1952, it did not enter service until 1 February 1957. Bristol

12705-424: The two companies were closely connected, and the company's first premises were a pair of former tram sheds used for aircraft manufacture at Filton leased from the Bristol Tramway Company. Additionally, key personnel for the new business were recruited from the Bristol Tramway Company, including the chief engineer and works manager, George Challenger . Flying schools were established at Brooklands , Surrey, which

12826-437: The type: "It was very comfortable. It flew very well. It was big. You didn't whip it around like a Tiger Moth or Spitfire , but as long as you treated it like a double-decker bus or a large aeroplane, you had no trouble at all". While the Brabazon's flight tests were being performed, BOAC became increasingly uninterested with the prospects for operating the type. On a test flight, BOAC chairman Sir Miles Thomas briefly took

12947-435: The various envisioned aircraft, including the gigantic Type I, was issued by the Committee. As early as 1937, the Bristol Aeroplane Company had conducted studies into very large bomber designs, one of which received the internal company designation of Type 159 , and another, undesignated design that broadly resembled the eventual configuration of the Brabazon. Additionally, Bristol's design team had already been considering

13068-494: The wealthy people flying in the aircraft would consider a long trip by air to be uncomfortable, and so designed the Type I for luxury, demanding 200 ft (6 m) of space for every passenger, which was expanded to 270 ft (8 m) for luxury class. If outfitted with conventionally spaced seating, the dimensions of the Type 167 could have accommodated up to 300 passengers, instead of the 60 seats opted for. Other high-comfort measures were proposed, such as an onboard cinema ,

13189-462: The wings driving four pusher propeller installations, and enough fuel for transatlantic range. The Convair B-36 was in many ways the American equivalent of that projected "100-ton bomber". In addition to Bristol, many leading British manufacturers had provided several preliminary studies in response to the Air Ministry's operational requirement. However, in expectation of long development times, and

13310-458: Was a medium-range airliner for the multiple-hop " Empire " air routes, and the Type IV was an innovative jet-powered 500 mph (800 km/h) airliner. In particular, the Type I and Type IV were regarded as being of very high importance to the industry, particularly the jet-powered Type IV, which would give Britain a commanding lead in the field of jet transport. An outline of the specifications for

13431-641: Was also involved in helicopter development, with the Belvedere and Sycamore going into quantity production. Another post-war activity was missile development, culminating in the production of the Bloodhound anti-aircraft missile. Upon introduction, the Bloodhound was the RAF's only long range transportable surface-to-air missile. Bristol Aero Engines produced a range of rocket motors and ramjets for missile propulsion. The guided weapons division eventually became part of Matra BAe Dynamics Alenia ( MBDA ). In

13552-465: Was formerly MacDonald Brothers Aircraft, and was the largest of the subsidiaries and the group's only airframe plant. Bristol de Mexico, S.A. de CV. (Central Airport, Mexico City), overhauled piston engines for South American operators. Bristol de Mexico S.A. obtained a license to manufacture Alfred Herbert Ltd machine tools in 1963 and commenced assembling their centre lathes in 1963. They also commenced building their own design of small engine lathes for

13673-492: Was involved in the post-war renaissance of British civilian aircraft, which was largely inspired by the Brabazon Committee report of 1943–5. In 1949, the Brabazon airliner prototype, at the time one of the largest aircraft in the world, first flew. This project was deemed to be a step in the wrong direction, gaining little interest from military or civilian operators, resulting in the Brabazon being ultimately cancelled in 1953. At

13794-433: Was later joined by Gordon England . In January 1912 Romanian aircraft engineer Henri Coandă was appointed as the company's chief designer. During early 1912 a highly secret separate design office, known as the " X-Department ", was set up to work on Dennistoun Burney 's ideas for naval aircraft. Frank Barnwell was taken on as the design engineer for this project, and took over as Bristol's chief designer when Coandă left

13915-433: Was no longer relevant in the postwar world. The Brabazon was the first aircraft to be outfitted with 100 per cent powered flying controls; it was also the first with electric engine controls, and the first equipped with high-pressure hydraulics. 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. One of

14036-407: Was powered by an arrangement of eight Bristol Centaurus radial engines which drove eight paired contra-rotating propellers set on four forward-facing nacelles. Bristol decided to submit the Type 167 proposal to meet Air Ministry Specification 2/44 . Following a brief evaluation period, a contract to build a pair of prototypes was awarded. At the time of its construction, the Brabazon was one of

14157-490: Was rolled out for engine runs. On 3 September 1949, the prototype, piloted by Pegg and co-piloted by Walter Gibb, along with a crew of eight observers and flight engineers, performed a series of trial taxi runs; these revealed no problems save for the nosewheel steering not working correctly; it was temporarily disabled. On 4 September 1949, the prototype performed its maiden flight over the Bristol area, flying for 25 minutes, captained by Pegg. Around 10,000 people had gathered at

14278-530: Was selected to be the chief pilot for the Brabazon. In preparation for the impending flight testing, as a means of gaining experience in operating such a vast aircraft, Pegg accepted an invitation issued by Convair to travel to Fort Worth , Texas , to fly their B-36 Peacemaker , a large strategic bomber operated by the United States Air Force . During December 1948, the Mk.I prototype, registration G-AGPW ,

14399-498: Was the largest of the overseas subsidiaries. The group undertook aircraft handling and servicing at Dorval Airport , Montreal. Vancouver Airport was the base for Bristol Aero Engines (Western), Ltd., one of the Canadian company's four operating subsidiaries. Work at Vancouver included the overhaul of Pratt and Whitney and Wright engines for the R.C.A.F. and commercial operators. Bristol Aircraft (Western), Ltd (Stevenson Field, Winnipeg)

14520-446: Was then the centre of activity for British aviation, where Bristol rented a hangar; and at Larkhill on Salisbury Plain where, in June 1910, a school was established on 2,248 acres (9.10 km ) of land leased from the War Office . By 1914 308 of the 664 Royal Aero Club certificates issued had been earned at the company's schools. The company's initial manufacturing venture was to be

14641-407: Was worked on by Barnwell after his return, the Bristol T.T.A. , was designed in response to a War Office requirement for a two-seat fighter intended to conduct home defence operations against Zeppelin raids. This was not successful but, in 1916, work was started on the Bristol F.2A , which was developed into the highly successful F.2B Fighter , one of the outstanding aircraft of the 1914–18 war and

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