BRITAIN’S BIGGEST PLANE YET: NEW GIANT AIR-LINER

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 10, 6 January 1948, Page 7

BRITAIN’S BIGGEST PLANE YET: NEW GIANT AIR-LINER

The coming event of great importance in the world of civil aviation is the eagerly awaited advent of the Bristol Aeroplane Company’s giant new passenger-cari-ying aircraft the Brabazon I, known officially as the Type 167. The Brabazon is the biggest land-plane yet to be built by the British aircraft industry, says a writer in Coming Events. .To house it the Bristol Company has constructed a huge assembly “hall” which is - a triumph of engineering skill comparable to the aircraft iself. Some idea of the immensity of the hall is provided by the fact that it could comfortably accommodate the vast length of the “Queen Mary” or of the House of Parliament.

The Brabazon is now in an advanced stage of construction at the Bristol Company’s Filton works. It is not expected that the prototype will be put into regular airline service but that it will be used solely for flight .development work. From its flight trials, however, soon to begin, will be evolved three succeeding production aircraft, the first of which is expected to go into regular service in 1950 on the British Overseas Airways Corporation north Atlantic route, flying non-stop, direct, from London to New York. The prototype Brabazon is powered by eight Bristol Centaurus radial engines each rated at 2500 b.h.p. for take-off. With an all-up weight of approximately 126 tons, the aircraft will have an initial service ceiling of 25,000 feet—increasing as fuel is consumed—and a maximum level speed of more than 300 m.p.h. and economical cruising speed of 250 m.p.h., at that height. It will have a still air range of 5000 miles, allowing a wide safety margin for the London-New York route in the most adverse weather conditions. - The three succeeding production aircraft will be powered by eight Bristol -Proteus propellor turbines of considerably higher power and correspondingly increased performance.