93-611: The Bristol Type 170 Freighter is a British twin-engine aircraft designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company as both a freighter and airliner . Its best known use was as an air ferry to carry cars and their passengers over relatively short distances. A passenger-only version was also produced, known as the Wayfarer . The Freighter was developed during the Second World War , having attracted official attention from
186-539: A Sperry Corporation -built autopilot would typically be installed. The flight deck was typically operated by a two-man crew, a first pilot and second pilot or radio operator; in addition, space was provided at the rear for a third crew member. The Bristol Hercules 734 radial engines that powered the type, along with all of its major subsystems such as the cowling, oil tank, cooler and control cables, could also be easily detached for servicing; an entire engine replacement could be performed within 90 minutes. The fuel system
279-642: 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
372-553: 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
465-593: 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 the car division being lost during the wider company's merger with BAC. Accordingly, Bristol Cars Limited was formed, and remained within
558-612: 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
651-503: 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
744-649: A number of demonstration flights around the world, the Bristol 170 entered full production. One of the first sales was to the Argentine Air Force , which ordered 15 aircraft. The managing director of Silver City Airways was Wing Commander Griffith James Powell, who realised that he could adapt the Bristol Freighter to fly passengers with their cars from Britain to Continental Europe and Jersey . As an " air ferry ", it would allow people going on holiday to avoid
837-561: 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 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,
930-523: 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 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
1023-475: A successful design by Henri Farman whose dimensions had been published in the aeronautical press. These drawings were produced in little over 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
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#17328441164431116-453: Is deliberately simple in its construction, while the use of maintenance-intensive components was kept to an absolute minimum and, where necessary, these were made as accessible and readily serviceable as possible. Manufacturing of the Freighter was eased by many components being standardised and identical where feasible; this ideology was also applied to elements of the internal structure, such as
1209-595: Is on display at Founders Historical Park in Nelson , and a fourth, the only one of its kind in Europe, is in storage in Bristol, United Kingdom after being transported from Ardmore Airport (New Zealand) by Aerospace Bristol . Other Freighter airframes around New Zealand now serve as novelty tea-rooms, backpacker hostels, and motel rooms, such as one in Ōtorohanga . One Freighter was in service in turn with British Ministry of Supply ,
1302-527: Is the world's oldest continuously published aviation news magazine. Flight International is published by DVV Media Group . Competitors include Jane's Information Group and Aviation Week . Former editors of, and contributors include H. F. King, Bill Gunston , John W. R. Taylor and David Learmount . The founder and first editor of Flight was Stanley Spooner . He was also the creator and editor of The Automotor Journal , originally titled The Automotor Journal and Horseless Vehicle . From around 1900
1395-493: Is uncomplicated, being contained within a pair of 300-gallon fuel tanks positioned in the interspar bays of the wings; neither fuel tanks or hydraulic pipelines were present in the outer wings. The only elements needing hydraulic systems were the clamshell doors and flaps . The electrically controlled carburation system had three different intakes, each suited to starting the engine under different conditions – these being hot, sub-zero, and temperate climates. The airframe itself
1488-618: The Bristol Superfreighter , was developed. The Bristol Type 170 was designed as a stop-gap project to provide work for the Bristol Aeroplane Company while the Bristol Brabazon was under development. Subsequently, the British Air Ministry expressed interest in the project, believing that it would provide a rugged transport aircraft capable of using unimproved airstrips; accordingly, a pair of prototypes were ordered on
1581-552: 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 the era, which were started by enthusiasts with little financial backing, British and Colonial
1674-674: 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 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
1767-642: The First World War . At the outbreak of war in August 1914, Britain's military forces possessed just over 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
1860-703: 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,
1953-677: The Reynolds-Alberta Museum in Wetaskiwin , Alberta . Sixty-eight of the 214 Freighters built were destroyed or damaged beyond economical repair in accidents. At least 45 of these were fatal, resulting in the deaths of at least 385 passengers and crew. Data from Jane's all the World's Aircraft 1953–54 General characteristics Performance Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era Bristol Aeroplane Company The Bristol Aeroplane Company , originally
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#17328441164432046-615: The Royal Australian Air Force and subsequently went into commercial use in Australia until 1978 after which it went on to become a museum exhibit and was given over to the RAAF Museum at Point Cook , Victoria, Australia in 1988. Bristol freighter Mk 31M G-BISU was operated by Instone Airline at Stansted, Essex, UK, for a number of years. This was an ex-RNZAF aircraft and left Ardmore on 2 March 1981 for its 86-hour ferry flight to
2139-671: 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,
2232-563: 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 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
2325-516: The Vietnam War and served several other roles, being adapted for—amongst other things— aerial topdressing experiments, although to avoid competition with private enterprise, the New Zealand government did not use them in that role. The airline Aigle Azur operated Bristol 170 Freighters in early 1950s French Indo-China . At least one aircraft was impressed by French authorities to fly supplies into
2418-444: The longerons , frames, and skin. The floor of the main hold is covered by wooden panels, designed to be easily replaceable in the event of damage; these were supported by a floor structure of deep transverse beams with a pair of longitudinal strips, strengthened by a support beam. Another ease-of-maintenance decision was to use cables for the control system where practical, while all flight control surfaces had fabric coverings, which
2511-520: 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 was then the centre of activity for British aviation, where Bristol rented a hangar; and at Larkhill on Salisbury Plain where, in June 1910,
2604-777: 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
2697-445: The British Air Ministry , which sought the development of a rugged vehicle capable of carrying various cargoes, including a 3-ton truck . Various changes to the design were made to accommodate their requirements, but being completed too late to participate in the conflict, the majority of sales of the Freighter were to commercial operators. In response to customer demand, an enlarged version to maximise vehicle-carrying capacity, known as
2790-403: 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 was involved in the post-war renaissance of British civilian aircraft, which
2883-487: The Freighter would play a logistical role in the South-East Asian theatre of the war, being operated by British Far East Command . However, as it was becoming clear that the conflict would be over before the aircraft could enter service, an increasing emphasis was placed on suiting the aircraft to meet the demands of civilian operators. A cost analysis demonstrated that for civil use, it would be more economic to increase
Bristol Freighter - Misplaced Pages Continue
2976-517: The Jupiter engine eventually proved enormously successful; indeed, during the inter-war period, the aero-engine division was more successful than 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
3069-585: 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
3162-649: 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 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
3255-640: 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
3348-500: 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
3441-492: The UK. It subsequently flew its first charter flight on 3 August 1981 delivering two racehorses to Deauville . This role of flying livestock was to take up half a year, while other work included carriage of oil drilling machinery, car parts, newspapers and mail. Re-registered as C-FDFC , in 1996 it crashed on takeoff with the crew escaping, but was essentially a write-off. The captain, John Duncan, and co-pilot Malcolm Cutter reported that
3534-653: The air forces of Argentina , Australia , Burma , Canada , Iraq , Pakistan and New Zealand. Bristol Freighters were operated briefly by the Pakistan Air Force . After withdrawal, some of the Pakistan aircraft were bought by SAFE Air and used in New Zealand. The Royal Canadian Air Force used five Freighters to carry spares and supplies between the United Kingdom and their bases in France and West Germany. The Royal New Zealand Air Force ordered 12 Mk 31M Freighters in
3627-466: The aircraft entered a severe yaw after takeoff, which was uncontrollable despite use of full opposite aileron and rudder control. In trying to avoid collision the aircraft stalled. The last Freighter in service, which flew for Instone Airline then later returned to New Zealand, was bought from surplus by Hawkair in Terrace, British Columbia , Canada. In 2004, this aircraft undertook its final ferry flight to
3720-445: 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 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
3813-401: The all-up weight of the design from 30,000 to 35,000 lb (14,000 to 16,000 kg) and to adopt the more powerful Bristol Hercules engine to power the Freighter. It was also considered that there would be a market for a passenger aircraft suitable for use from basic airstrips, and so a version without the nose doors and capable of carrying up to 36 passengers, to be known as the Wayfarer ,
Bristol Freighter - Misplaced Pages Continue
3906-536: The base at Dien Bien Phu . The New Zealand Freighters were retired from military use when replaced by Hawker Siddeley Andovers in the 1970s. After retirement, a number of smaller local operators briefly flew Freighters. Some were exported to Canada. A SAFE Air Freighter is preserved in taxiable condition at Blenheim and another at the Royal New Zealand Air Force Museum in Christchurch . A third
3999-402: 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 the Bristol 450 sports prototype to class victories in the 24 Hours of Le Mans race. In 1953, S.H. Arnolt,
4092-484: The clamshell doors. In addition to providing a good all-round view for the flight crew, this placement kept the flight deck clear of the loading activity below. Flight stated of the cockpit: "The control and instrument layout is quite the best we have seen in any Bristol aircraft". The major controls are typically comfortable and smooth, while each pilot is provided with a standard blind-flying panel. Instrumentation fittings differed dependent upon customer specification, but
4185-450: 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
4278-473: The condition that the design was modified so that it would be compatible with the air-transporting of a British Army 3-ton truck . For this requirement, the Air Ministry formulated and issued Specification 22/44 (which was later revised as C.9/45) around the envisioned design. As proposed, the aircraft was an all-metal, twin-engine high-wing monoplane based on the pre-war Bristol Bombay , having wings of
4371-516: The design engineer for this project, and took over as Bristol's chief designer when Coandă left 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
4464-426: 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
4557-409: 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
4650-460: The former chief instructor at the Blériot flying school at Hendon : he 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
4743-566: The huge re-armament ordered by the British Government in May of that year. Bristol's most important contribution to the expansion of 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
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#17328441164434836-465: The journal had a separate section relating to aviation and aeronautical matters. The 5 April 1908 issue of The Automotor Journal included a diagram of patent drawings of a plane made by the Wright brothers . Stanley kept in contact with them via his friend Griffith Brewer . Eventually, Spooner decided that a journal focused solely on matters relating to flying should be published—and so, Flight magazine
4929-417: The largest single aircraft manufacturing unit in the world, with a floor area of nearly 25 hectares (2,691,000 square feet). During 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
5022-769: The last aircraft to Dan-Air in March 1958. The New Zealand aircraft was delivered to Straits Air Freight Express (SAFE), which eventually operated one of the largest fleets of Freighters. One of the lengthened aircraft, registered G-AMWA, had 60 seats fitted and was known as a Super Wayfarer . In New Zealand SAFE Air moved rail freight from Wellington (the North Island ) across the Cook Strait to Blenheim (the South Island ) and back, using Bristol Freighters, starting in 1951. The airline later reconfigured its aircraft to accept palletised cargo loaded on patented "cargons". This
5115-757: The late 1940s. RNZAF Freighters ranged as far as supplying the New Zealand Army in Malaya , the British High Commissions (and other support staff) in the Maldives , Ceylon , India and Nepal , performing Far East Air Force tasks in Malaya (often when other aircraft types were unserviceable owing to maintenance problems) and Hong Kong . They ran a highly reliable military shuttle service for allies in Thailand during
5208-477: 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
5301-612: The late 1970s. Trans Australian Airlines bought four MK31 or MK 32s from the Pakistan Air Force. Two were flown back to Sydney Australia where they were rebuilt and then sent to New Guinea for TAA ‘s Sunbird services, flying freight into the New Guinea highlands. One then went to Archerfield airport in Brisbane Australia and was used for shipping Crayfish from Tasmania. In military service, Bristol Freighters were operated by
5394-482: The lengthy waits and travel times involved in traditional sea ferries . On 14 July 1948, the airline made the first flight with a car, from Lympne Airport in Kent to Le Touquet on the northern coast of France . Silver City Airways would become one of its most prolific operators: during 1954, each Freighter in the company's fleet averaged 2,970 landings and take offs — in excess of eight sectors per day for every day of
5487-411: The low speeds and short ranges for which the aircraft was intended, the fuel economy improvements that would be provided by a retractable undercarriage was outweighed by the increase in structural weight; therefore, it was decided that a fixed undercarriage would be used, which also had the benefits of reduced production and maintenance costs. The combination of a high-mounted wing and fixed undercarriage
5580-408: The main hold; as a direct consequence of this arrangement, the unpressurised fuselage was somewhat breezy during flight. The doors, which are hinged outwards, led into a main hold that had an internal volume of 2,020 cu ft; it was capable of being loaded with heavy payloads, up to a maximum of 350 cu ft per ton. To better facilitate loading, a built-in hoist is installed on the fixed upper surface of
5673-476: The name 'Bristol' and this was formalized in 1920, when British and Colonial was liquidated and its assets transferred to 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
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#17328441164435766-434: The nose of the aircraft. Other adaptations allowed the carrying of horses and other high-value large animals. Freighters were the major link between the Chatham Islands and mainland New Zealand until Armstrong Whitworth Argosy aircraft replaced them. SAFE Air developed a soundproofed "container" for the half of the aircraft given over to passengers on these flights. Bristol 170s were still in commercial use with SAFE until
5859-426: The nose, which reduced the need for airport-based infrastructure. Fixed restraining points to secure payloads are present throughout the internal space. On the passenger-carrying Wayfarer variant, the nose-mounted doors were substituted by a fixed shell and the area immediately behind would be used either as a cargo hold or galley . The flight deck of the Freighter was positioned in an elevated position, directly above
5952-407: 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,
6045-399: 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
6138-436: The rear section of the fuselage. Silver City Airways dubbed this variant the Superfreighter and subsequently built an airport named " Ferryfield " at Lydd in Kent, beginning air ferry services in 1955. In the same year, Channel Air Bridge started operations from Southend , with four Bristol Freighters flying to Calais . The last two Freighters of the 214 built were delivered in 1958, one to New Zealand in February and
6231-408: The role of a freighter and thus not a major diminishing factor. According to aviation publication Flight , the economics of the Freighter were judged to be a major factor of its market appeal, as well as the wider economic situation of the UK at this time. Operationally, the Freighter was intended to be employed upon high-frequency short distance routes as opposed to long-haul routes. Being flown at
6324-408: The same section and taper but with a swept leading edge and straight trailing edge with two spars in place of the seven used in the Bombay. The square-section fuselage was clear of internal obstructions; in the original design this was to be loaded via a trapdoor in the nose, but the Air Ministry requirements necessitated a change to clamshell doors in the nose. Considerable effort was made to maximise
6417-416: 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 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
6510-399: The two training schools, as well as serving as demonstration machines; 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
6603-466: The unbuilt "paper aeroplanes"; it does include the pre-August 1914 aircraft. Bristol Engine designs include: Original series: Sleeve-valve engines: Turbines' Flight International Flight International , formerly Flight , is a monthly magazine focused on aerospace . Published in the United Kingdom and founded in 1909 as "A Journal devoted to the Interests, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Transport", it
6696-562: The usable internal volume of the aircraft in order to readily accommodate the carriage of bulky cargoes. The flight deck was elevated above the load space on the nose as to not obstruct access; the crew would enter the flight deck via a fixed vertical ladder on the side of the cargo bay. Power was to have been provided by a pair of a development of the Bristol Perseus using nine Bristol Centaurus cylinders, each engine rated at 1,150 hp (860 kW). Early on, it had been envisioned that
6789-422: The year. In 1953, production of the freighter was moved to Whitney Straight 's Western Airways factory at Weston-super-Mare airport. A lengthened version, the Freighter 32 , which featured movable wooden partitions in the cargo compartment, was introduced; it could be configured to carry either three 14 ft (3.3m) cars and 20 passengers or two larger vehicles and 12 passengers, the passenger seats being in
6882-499: Was a first anywhere in the aviation world. Cargons were loaded near the rail yards and their load was calculated and arranged to remain within the aircraft's load and centre of gravity limits. They were then trucked to the airport and placed on the Freighter using a mechanical loading device. The loader accepted cargons from horizontal-tray road vehicles and then raised them to the level of the aircraft's cargo deck on electrically powered screw-jacks. The pallets could then be rolled into
6975-504: Was already a good working relationship between Bristol Aircraft and Cosmos, the Cosmos Jupiter having been first flown in 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,
7068-641: 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
7161-424: Was both light and easy to replace. On 30 April 1946, the second prototype, which was also the first 34-seat Wayfarer, registered G-AGVB , made its first flight. It quickly commenced proving flights in the colours of Channel Islands Airways , where it carried in excess of 10,000 passengers over six months. The third aircraft, registered G-AGVC, was the first Freighter I and had fully operational nose doors. After
7254-461: 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 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
7347-447: Was considered to be atypical for the era, and resulted in greater drag than a low-mounted counterpart would have. The main gear legs, which featured Dowty -built shock absorbers , were supported by an arrangement of strengthened vertical struts, positioned beneath the aircraft's engines and horizontally from the lower edge of the fuselage. The lower nose of the Freighter was covered by a pair of large clamshell doors, for easy access to
7440-403: Was developed specifically for the economic carriage of freight by air. It was a visually distinctive aircraft, possessing a 'boxy' fuselage, rounded nose, and a high-set flight deck. In order to maximise the economical performance of the Freighter, compromises were implemented on other aspects of performance, resulting in a relatively low cruising speed; this was not viewed as being of importance to
7533-541: Was established as an offshoot of The Automotor Journal . Claiming to be the first aeronautical weekly in the world, Flight first appeared on 2 January 1909 as the official journal of the Aero Club of the United Kingdom (later the Royal Aero Club). In April 1934, Flight was acquired by Iliffe & Sons , who were proprietors and printers of technical magazines, one of which included Autocar . On 4 January 1962
7626-465: 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
7719-603: 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 the same time as the termination, Bristol decided to focus on development of
7812-571: 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 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
7905-426: Was not capable of much further development and work soon was started on two new designs, 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 ,
7998-413: Was noted for its preference for steel airframes, using members built up from high-tensile steel strip rolled into flanged sections rather than 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
8091-437: Was proposed. On 2 December 1945, the first prototype, registered G-AGPV , was first flown at Filton by Cyril Uwins . Cyril found the aircraft to be generally satisfactory, but requested that the tailplane be lowered and increased in span as to enable the aircraft be trimmed to fly "hands off" over a wide range of centre of gravity positions. The Bristol Type 170 Freighter was a twin-engine, high mounted-wing monoplane that
8184-554: 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 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
8277-416: 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 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
8370-534: 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 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
8463-542: Was the Bristol Bulldog fighter, which formed the mainstay of Royal Air Force (RAF) fighter force between 1930 and 1937, when 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
8556-498: 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)
8649-471: 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 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
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