FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1957
1957 - 0144.PDF
EAST BAY 146FLIGHT, 1 February1957 East (Fli0ht Taat) Boy A Prototype Britannia 102—G-ALBO B Prototype 310 Mk 311—G-AOVA C B.O.A.C. 102 (9th aircraft). D Mock-up. E Prototype 300 Mk 301—G-ANCA Wmlor A B.O.A.C. 102 (14th aircraft). B B.O.A.C. 102 (12th aircraft). C B.O.A.C. 102 (13th aircraft). Centre Bay A B.O.A.C. Britannia 102 (11th aircraft). B.O.A.C. 102 (10th aircraft), G-ANBJ El Al 313 (1st aircraft). B.O.A.C. 312 (2nd aircraft). B.O.A.C. 102 (15th aircraft). El Al 313 (2nd aircraft). El Al 313 (3rd aircraft). H Wing assembly jigs. Under the one great roof of the Britannia assembly hall construction of the aircraft proceeds from jig stages (shown in tone) through final assembly and painting in the West Bay, to flight test from the East Bay. This revealing drawing shows pictonally the complete Britannia production position as at mid-January this year. BRITANNIA PROGRESS REPORT . . . is to be found in long hours of flying under the widest variety ofweather conditions over airline routes, keeping to airline schedules. Britannia flying has now reached the truly massive total of 8,000 hr,of which half has been accumulated by Bristol's flight test crews. There has been an erroneous impression that, in the past fewmonths, Britannias have been "sitting around doing nothing." This could hardly be farther from the truth. Not only have theaircraft been in constant use, but they have flown millions of revenue-earning passenger miles on trooping and evacuationflights. Typical of these sorties was the carriage of 99 troops to Aden, returning with 110-plus evacuees from Bahrein; while it isreported :hat on one occasion during the Hungarian airlift 196 refugees were transported in a Britannia. A considerable amount of flying was also done while the testcrews were searching for dry ice : in seven trips to Entebbe, Baker How flew 500 hr in order to spend 40 hr under the inter-tropicalfront conditions in which dry ice is generated. For performance checking under tropical conditions many flights have been madeto Idris, in North Africa. Baker Able was used for Britannia 100 tropical trials (which were completed in March 1955) and was thenused as a Proteus 755 test bed; and Charlie Able finished similar trials for the 301 last November. Perhaps the latest—and mostimpressive—test is the 13-hour flight with the first 312 (see Flight, January 18), made as a preliminary operational and naviga-tional trial for the trip to Vancouver for winterization trials. It was due to take place this week with pilots of El Al on board.Such flights have formed the pattern of flying by the Bristol test team. Five crews under Walter Gibb, Bristol's chief test pilot, andTommy Farnsworth, the development test pilot, are trained up to airline operational standards and they can—and do—fly "round-the-clock." Filton has been made highly operational by the instal- lation of radar and visual aids; during periods of intensive flyinglandings have been made with a cloud-base of only 200ft. As a result of this unprecedented flight-test effort, B.O.A.C. hasbeen relieved of a good deal of the development flying that is customary if an aircraft is delivered prior to its grant of a C. of A.Instead, the Corporation has been able to concentrate on proving flights and crew training, so that on both sides a mammoth pre-service experience has been gained. Both airline and Bristol pilots have made many long flights. In the words of Walter Gibb: "Twohours—that's a hop round the houses; five hours is normal; eight so-so; ten to 12 hours not unusual." After going from Filton toMalta, Tripoli, Tunis and back to Filton there is still an hour to spare—usually occupied by flying to Cornwall. On a six-hour flightthe Britannia flies around England twice. "But the beauty of it is," added W/C. Gibb, "that while on a piston-engined airliner youhave 96 or so big hammers thumping up and down umpteen times a minute, and 24 hours later—long after the flight is completed—you can still hear them, I've done 23 almost continuous hours in the Britannia without being exhausted." The Britannia's introduction to world air routes will beginwith three services a week to Johannesburg. To suit Air Traffic Control requirements, which mitigate against a true "cruise-climb," a stepped climb procedure between heights of 20,000 and 30,000ft (the operational ceiling is 36,000ft) will be used byB.O.A.C. A fuller account of the operational procedure used is given on page 142, but it is of interest to record here that thecruising Mach number for the Britannia 100 has been established as ranging between 0.44 and 0.54 as height is gained in the cruise-climb, with a maximum cruising Mach number of 0.57—although M=0.7 has been recorded on a test flight. The Britannia has reached service with B.O.A.C. after a periodof disappointing delays, but now has a background of experience and an expectation of reliability for which the airline businessknows no parallel. It would be easy for Bristol to look back at the prodigious efforts that have been made to cure the dry icetroubles, the challenge of "Operation Gauntlet," increasing pro- duction of the long-range versions, and the many hours spentairborne over Europe and Africa, and to feel that reaching this stage was a job well done. But rather there is a feeling that thecompany are only on the threshold of the great stage in Britannia history. "Just wait," they have occasionally said, "until theBritannia is in service." And now that day has arrived. A.T.P. B.O.A.C. s BRITANNIA PLANS By the autumn of this year B.O.A.C.'s 15 Britannia 102s willhave taken over the major pan of the work now being done by the Corporation's Argonauts and Constellation 749As. The thrice-weekly mixed-class Britannia service to Johannes-burg which starts today, February 1, will displace 749A services entirely, leaving Argonauts to do the East African services ter- The scene in the centre bay of the Assembly Hall. The diagram above is contemporary with this photograph and enables each aircraft to be identified.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
