Shortfinals – aviation and more!

By: shortfinals

Dec 08 2010

Tags: 'Brit', 'Britain First', 'free turbine', 'legacy' bases, 'Regulus', 'XM496 Preservation Society', 108 passengers, 16th August 1952, 1943, 1945, 1957, 1976, 19th March 1959, 3700 hp, 39" pitch, 511 Squadron, 8000 foot runway, 85 aircraft, 99 Squadron, Aer Turas, Aeronaves de Mexico, Air Charter, aircraft, aircraft preservation, anti-submarine aircraft, Argentina, Argus, assembly building, Atlantic, Aviation, BOAC, Boeing 707, Brabazon, Brabazon Committee, Bristol, Bristol Aeroplane Company, Bristol Beaufighter, Bristol Blenheim, Bristol Proteus, Britannia Aircraft Preservation Trust, Britannia Airways, Britannia Pilots' Notes, British aviation, British bases, British Eagle, British Overseas Airways Corporation, British press baron, Caledonian Airways, Canada, Canadair, Canadian Pacific Air Lines, CC-106 Yukon, Centaurus engines, civil operators, CL-44, commercial airliner, Cotswold Airport, CP-107, crash-landing, crew trainer, CSA, Cuba, Cubana de Aviacion, Czechoslovakia, Dutch airline, El Al, Electra, engines, England, Europe, ex-BOAC aircraft, Filton, first-class passengers, freight operators, G-ALRX, game changers, giant airliner, Gloucestershire, government, Great Vintage Flying Weekend, GVFWE, Ireland, Israel, Bristol Aero Collection, Kemble, KLM, Lockheed, Lord Rothermere, Mexico, Monarch Airlines, monoplane, mud, No. 3 engine, Northern Ireland, nose section, palletized freight, Pilots' Notes, piston-engined, press baron, R-3350, RAF, RAF Lyneham, RAF Transport Command, RCAF, Redcoat Air Cargo, reduction gear, Royal Air Force, Sea Furies, second prototype, Second World War, Severn Estuary, Short Brothers and Harland, Specification C2/47, TC18EAI, Transair Cargo, Transcontinental SA, Type 1, Type 142, uncontrolled engine fire, warbird, Whispering Giant, Wright, WW2, XM496, Yukon, Zaire

Category: aircraft, Aviation, British Isles, England, Great Britain, Great Vintage Flying Weekend, Kemble, military, RAF, Royal Air Force, Second World War, warbird

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By 1945, the Bristol Aeroplane Company had been one of the giants of British aviation for decades, producing engines and aircraft which were often game changers. The Bristol Blenheim – itself derived from the Type 142 ‘Britain First’ monoplane, ordered by Lord Rothermere, the British press baron – was a major advance when it flew in 1935, and the Bristol Beaufighter of WW2 was a pugnacious brute. The bad news was that the company laid an egg with the attempt to change the game after WW2. The Brabazon Committee had been set up in 1943 while Europe was still ablaze. This Government Committee was intended to make recommendations for aircraft to be used by civil operators after the war. One of the specifications (the Type 1) was for a giant airliner carrying a limited number of first-class passengers across the Atlantic. Power came from 8 coupled Centaurus engines (four pairs) – think eight Sea Furies worth! The plan was a huge dud, the Brabazon was cancelled…..and the company suffered. Obviously, the future lay with the jet engine, but these were not yet economical enough, so Bristol turned to the turboprop, and built what was to become known as the ‘Whispering Giant’.

The Britannia was built to another Brabazon Committee recommendation (the Type III) intended to be a long-range commercial airliner, powered by turboprops and built to Specification C2/47. There were some useful left-overs from the Brabazon programme that came in handy for the Bristol 175 Britannia – the extended, 8000 foot runway at Filton, near Bristol and the massive, new, assembly building, big enough to take any commercial aircraft yet built. The first flight took place on 16th August 1952, but the Britannia wasn’t put into service until 1957; a deadly gap, as the Boeing 707 was on the horizon. There were constant problems, however, with the new ‘free turbine’ Bristol Proteus turboprops and they gave endless trouble at the start. For example, the second prototype, the Britannia 101 G-ALRX, suffered an uncontrolled engine fire on the 4th Febraury, 1954, when the reduction gear of No. 3 engine exploded, and the ‘plane had to make a crash-landing onto the mud of the Severn Estuary close to Littleton-upon-Severn;  Bristol’s Chief Test Pilot, William “Bill” Pegg, did a superb job. Embarrassingly, a two-man technical team from KLM, the Dutch airline, where on board at the time. No-one was hurt but the Dutch order went to the Lockheed Electra. British Overseas Airways Corporation took the first batch off the Filton line (the ‘Brit’ was also built in Northern Ireland by Short Brothers and Harland) and it was also sold to other airlines in small quantities. According to the Britannia Pilots’ Notes, 108 passengers could be carried at a rather generous 39″ pitch, or a suitable load of palletized freight, or a combination of both. It was also obvious that the Royal Air Force would find such an aircraft useful in support of far-flung British bases – these were the days when the UK still had ‘legacy’ bases scattered around the world – and RAF Transport Command, namelyNo. 99 and 511 Squadrons, took delivery of the first of 23 Britannia aircraft on 19th March 1959. The total Britannia production run of 85 aircraft (the last one built in 1960) went through a remarkable number of owners and leasees; to the ex-BOAC aircraft were added the RAF machines as they were withdrawn and sold. Amongst the slew of users were, Transcontinental SA (Argentina), Canadian Pacific Air Lines (Canada), Cubana de Aviacion (Cuba), CSA (Czechoslovakia), Aer Turas (Ireland), El Al (Israel), Aeronaves de Mexico (Mexico), Transair Cargo (Zaire) and a whole raft of British passenger and freight operators including Air Charter, BOAC, Britannia Airways, British Eagle, Caledonian Airways, Monarch Airlines and Redcoat Air Cargo.

Here we can see a superb example of aircraft preservation; XM496, named ‘Regulus’ (RAF Britannias were named after stars), served at RAF Lyneham – the Britannia’s main base –  until bought by Monarch Airlines in 1976. After many trials and tribulations, she is in the caring hands of the ‘XM496 Preservation Society’, and may be visited on her base at Cotswold Airport, Kemble, Gloucestershire, once home of the Red Arrows and the Great Vintage Flying Weekend.  Strangely there was, at one time, a major part of another Britannia on the same airport. The sections of G-ACNF, a Britannia 308F, formerly of British Eagle were stored by the Britannia Preservation Society at Kemble. Now after a long history apart,  the nose, centre and tail sections have been re-united on a Listed disused section of the airport apron of the former Liverpool Speke Airport, next to the Grade II* Listed Crowne Plaza John Lennon Liverpool Airport Hotel. November Fox is in the care of the Britannia Aircraft Preservation Trust, who intend to restore it to its British Eagle livery.

But what of G-ALRX, the prototype that crash-landed onto the Severn mudflats? The nose section was used, after recovery, as a crew trainer for a time but now forms an integral part of Aerospace Bristol, a museum at Filton which is run by the Bristol Aero Collection Trust.

Finally, there was the case of Canadair, who had acquired a license to build their version of the ‘Brit’, the CL-44 (RCAF, CC-106 Yukon) using Rolls-Royce Tyne 515/50 turboprops, and a piston-engined derivative (4 x Wright R-3350 TC18EAI Turbo-Compound of 3700 hp), with a new fuselage, as a superlative anti-submarine aircraft, the CP-107 Argus (Mk 1 and 2).

As well as having the ability to carry up to 160 passengers, the CL-44 was an excellent cargo carrier, and the CL-44D4 model was equipped with a swing-tail for ease of loading.

The ultimate Britannia derivative may well have been the Conroy Aircraft CL-44 Skymonster. Built in California in 1969, the Skymonster had, as well as the swing tail of the D4, a monstrously swollen fuselage capable of carrying no less than three palletised R/R RB-211 engines. You could say that this was the fore-runner of the famous Airbus A300-600 ST, a.k.a. the Beluga.

The Britannia – elegant, stylish, but just a touch too late to the party.