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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 0136.PDF
"Flight" photograph BRITANNIA: the Pilot's Airliner By CAPTAIN LINCOLN LEE, B.O.A.C. Britannia Fleet A GREAT many people, not the least amongst them beingthe prospective passengers, are delighted that the Britanniais about to go into service. But I can think of none who are more pleased than the pilots of B.O.A.C.'s Britannia Fleet.After only a comparatively few hours of route-flying it endeared itself to me as a trunk-route aircraft, and I am sure that that appliesto all the other pilots of the fleet. As a route aircraft the Britannia has advantages which make it a really tremendous improvementover the types which it is replacing, and it is those advantages which I want to outline in this article, as distinct from theeconomic and more general advantages which this journal has already well described. Search Radar. The first really outstanding advantage of theaircraft is its search radar. I have never been able to comprehend how any passenger, let alone somebody on his first flight, enduresthe turbulence inflicted by a cumulo-nimbus. Thunder-clouds have always provided the most unpleasant feature of flying, andmy modest fifteen years of experience with them has made me dislike them more and more. Search radar eliminates this mostfrequent and serious of worries. Just like that; it is almost too good to be true. No pilot who has once weaved effortlesslythrough the activity of the Intertropical Convergence Zone by casual reference to the radar screen will want to fly without it. The advantage of the search radar does not end there. As anavigational aid alone it may be well worth while. Any prominent landmark within 120 miles of the nose, be it lake or island,mountain or coastline, will show on the screen, giving an instantaneous relative fix on the dirtiest, cloudiest night. On theroutes which the Britannia 102 will operate the terrain is such that once crews gain experience they may be able to get theirposition by reference to the screen during a considerable per- centage of the time. Another advantage, though of course withlimitations, is that it can be used for ground-speed checks, and in this connection it is interesting to know that even small shipsgive a return on the screen. The Aircraft Itself. To my mind it stands to the credit of thedesigners that, despite its size and speed, there is little unorthodox in the handling of the Britannia. There is no disputing that it isa lovely aircraft to fly, and is not in any way hot to handle. Above circuit height one's feet are not put on the rudder; otherwisethere is little one can say about the controls. Some of the panel layouts are a vast improvement over those of older aircraft. Thefuel panel is exceptionally good, telling you everything you could want to know about the fuel system at a glance. The electricaland fire panels are also excellently designed. Even the roof radio panel, which at first glance seems confusing, is an attraction. Inparticular, this is so because everything you need is at your finger-tips—a lavish array of equipment. D.M.E. and I.L.S.,besides two A.D.F., two U.H.F., and two H.F. sets, are all within easy reach of the two or three pilots who may be operating theaircraft. To utilize this equipment we now have the new light headsets, which are a great improvement when one has to be onduty for umpteen hours. Independent of the general interphone system (and just as well) we have a first-rate public addresssystem. Horses to Spare. There is little point in enlarging on some ofthe minor features of the flight deck. I myself find the sun visor surprisingly useful, while the pilots' seats are far better than theones I have experienced in the past. It is the bigger things which count, and the one which appeals to me most is the feeling ofpower which the Britannia gives. I am not a megalomaniac, but tremendous power is highly desirable at take-off, and that theBritannia really has. I haven't experienced a genuine engine failure on the aircraft, and it is probable that the Proteus willfail very rarely. But I think one can say that the effect on per- formance is so slight that one of the pilot's worries may be thathe will not notice the failure at once. One of the smaller items which does call for comment is theheight lock incorporated in the excellent S.E.P.2 autopilot. With potential destruction hurtling above and below one on the airwaysand advisory routes, and often within 300 yards vertically, a height lock is really essential. I must admit I felt uneasy about thestalling potentialities until I tried this one. Not to worry: almost as soon as power falls off the autopilot disengages. Delays and Decisions. For the line pilot it is always fascinat-ing to watch the diagnosis and investigation of a difficulty such as the dry-ice flame-out. During the delay we had to endure thechaffing of friends, including frivolous references to the name of the engine,* but there was great admiration for the firmness ofthe decision taken by the management of B.O.A.C. and Bristol Aircraft. A popular story went the rounds two or three monthsago about the trials then being carried out at Entebbe. According to this, the technicians had a television camera installed in theintake of a Proteus, so they could watch on the screen in the cabin a clear picture of a section of the entry guide-vanes. Oneach occasion the vanes showed clearly until some minutes after the aircraft entered dry-ice conditions; then pieces of ice wereseen to shoot back and lie momentarily on the vanes. And each time, as the ice disintegrated and went into the compressor,familiar words would appear on the TV screen: "Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible." Joking apart, this was an occasion worthy of note, when manu-facturers, operators and outside advisers all worked together with firmness, ingenuity and great success; and, because of that,"normal service" is in fact being resumed without an excessive delay. * Chambers' Dictionary: "Proteus, the sea-god, fabled to have poweroj changing himself into an endless variety of forms: variable: inconstant."
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