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Aviation History
1949
1949 - 1646.PDF
FLIGHT, 29 September 1949 THE STORY OF THE BRABAZON A. E. Russell, chief designer. Aircraft Division, Bristol Aeroplane Company. F. M. Owner, chief engineer, Engine Division, (right), and S. Mansell, chief engine designer, on the day of the first flight. A. J. (•• Bill ") Pegg, chief test pilot. regularity to be gained by elimination of the uncertainties of refuelling in Newfoundland. This meant a highly specialized design, and the official view was that the Bristol 167 represented the size required to deal with this very large air mileage requirement. The design of the Mark II prototype, now more than half completed, shows the improvements made—they include, in particular, greater operational flexibility; this should be of great value, however it may be decided to operate the aircraft. With any commercially competitive scheduled air service, high fleet utilization must be a first aim. The larger the unit the more difficult this becomes and correspondingly greater emphasis is placed on both mechanical dependability and. operational regularity. The former means designing for consistency of performance and easy maintenance from the outset; the latter means—-par- ticularly where flight cancellations due to adverse terminal forecasts would have catastrophic repercussions upon planned aircraft movements and thus on booking office and hangars—all-round reductions of operating limits through better route facilities and operating techniques. It is proposed to refer specifically to some of the development done up to this stage under the first heading as the result of collaboration between B.O.A.C. and the firm: — (1) Safety:— (i) Best location of emergency exits; details and location of life-saving equipment, etc. . . , (ii) Design criteria for airframe and engine anti-icing. ' (iii) Advice on fire precautions. (2) Increasing " payability ":—The original specification was for a 50-72 passenger aircraft for direct operation between London and New York throughout the year. This target would have seriously restricted the revenue potential of so large an aircraft. Studies by B.O.A.C. which, incidentally, meant establishing de novo the best method of operating turbine-powered aircraft, have raised the target to at least 100 passengers by more efficient use of fuselage volume. (3) Maintenance features:—The wealth of B.O.A.C.'s experience has been put into the redesign of many items to improve maintenance; this is possibly B.O.A.C.'s most valuable contribution. Because of size alone there has had-to be much specialized design, including handling equipment for ground use. (4) Increased operational flexibility:—Continuous operational and design investigations with the firm have resulted in: — (i) Development of an eight-tyred four-wheel bogey undercarriage to reduce runway beating loads; (ii) Improvements to the cabin air supply, thus increasing passenger capacity, which was previously limited by this feature; (iii) Raising the original structural wing bending moment limit to the maxi- mum payload which could be carried, even on short sectors. (5) General operating advice:—In particular, r (i) Policy for the electrical systems. (ii) Methods of operating reversible-pitch airscrews, since widely adopted, (iii) Wheel braking systems. (iv) Take-off and landing procedures, thus influencing undercarriage and flap design, and their operation. -
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