AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 189 / 295

Plate 189 of 295 · Early jet age · Eight-engined transatlantic airliner prototype

Bristol Brabazon

Type 167 Brabazon Mk I, G-AGPW, painted as G-AGPW, the Bristol Type 167 Brabazon Mk I, the only Brabazon to fly, at Filton early in its test flying in 1949–50: a huge transatlantic airliner prototype with a long circular-section fuselage, a bulged nose with the flight deck windows high on top, a 230 ft tapered wing with eight Bristol Centaurus radials buried in pairs inside it, each pair driving a set of contra-rotating three-bladed propellers on four shafts along the leading edge, a tall fin and rudder, and a tricycle undercarriage with twin-leg, four-wheel main units and a twin nosewheel: bare aluminium overall, three black flight-test bands round the fuselage, a black inverted ‘T’ above each wing root and a black stripe down the rudder hinge, a Union flag high on the fin with ‘G-AGPW’ in black below it, ‘G-AGPW’ under the port wing and black propellers, as photographed in February 1950 (the Brabazon was scrapped in 1953; the shape was taken from published three-views scaled to the published span and length and checked against some 25 photographs; the nose probe of its later test flying is left off, the starboard-side windows are assumed to match the port side, and the elevator and rudder mass-balance fairings are estimated).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as G-AGPW, the Bristol Type 167 Brabazon Mk I, the only Brabazon to fly, at Filton early in its test flying in 1949–50: a huge transatlantic airliner prototype with a long circular-section fuselage, a bulged nose with the flight deck windows high on top, a 230 ft tapered wing with eight Bristol Centaurus radials buried in pairs inside it, each pair driving a set of contra-rotating three-bladed propellers on four shafts along the leading edge, a tall fin and rudder, and a tricycle undercarriage with twin-leg, four-wheel main units and a twin nosewheel: bare aluminium overall, three black flight-test bands round the fuselage, a black inverted ‘T’ above each wing root and a black stripe down the rudder hinge, a Union flag high on the fin with ‘G-AGPW’ in black below it, ‘G-AGPW’ under the port wing and black propellers, as photographed in February 1950 (the Brabazon was scrapped in 1953; the shape was taken from published three-views scaled to the published span and length and checked against some 25 photographs; the nose probe of its later test flying is left off, the starboard-side windows are assumed to match the port side, and the elevator and rudder mass-balance fairings are estimated). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.1 MB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (Type 167 Mk I); engine, crew and dimensions are for the Type 167 Brabazon Mk I, G-AGPW modelled here.

History

The Brabazon

In 1943, with the war still on, the government set up a committee under Lord Brabazon of Tara to decide which airliners Britain should build once peace came. Its first and grandest recommendation, the Type I, was a large airliner able to fly non-stop between London and New York in comfort. The Bristol Aeroplane Company won the work, and its design team under Leslie Frise and Archibald Russell drew an aircraft of unprecedented size for Britain: a 230 ft wing so deep that eight Bristol Centaurus engines could be buried inside it, coupled in pairs to drive four sets of contra-rotating propellers, and a fuselage 177 ft long, roomy enough for sleeping berths, a dining room and a cocktail bar.

Nothing at Filton was big enough to build it. Bristol put up a vast three-bay assembly hall and lengthened the runway, clearing part of the village of Charlton to do so. The Mk I prototype, G-AGPW, first flew on 4 September 1949 in the hands of Bristol’s chief test pilot, Bill Pegg, with Walter Gibb as co-pilot, and within days it flew past the crowds at the Farnborough show. Over the next three years it was shown at Heathrow and at the Paris show in 1951. A Mk II, G-AGPX, was being built alongside it with eight Bristol Proteus turboprops in place of the piston engines, and was meant to be the version that went into service.

By then the airlines had lost interest. The Brabazon had been designed for a few wealthy passengers in great comfort, but transatlantic travel was going the other way, towards faster and more economical airliners carrying many more people, such as the Lockheed Constellation and, soon, Bristol’s own Britannia. Neither BOAC nor British European Airways would order it, and fatigue cracks found in the propeller mountings would have limited its flying. The programme was cancelled in 1952 after G-AGPW had flown about 400 hours, and both the prototype and the unfinished Mk II were broken up at Filton in 1953. None survives.

This airframe

Brabazon Mk I G-AGPW

G-AGPWThe airframe modelled

G-AGPW was the only Brabazon to fly. Rolled out at Filton in 1949, it first flew on 4 September that year and spent the next three years on test and demonstration flying before it was scrapped in 1953. No Brabazon survives, so the model shows G-AGPW as photographs record it early in its test flying, in about February 1950: bare aluminium overall, three black flight-test bands round the fuselage, a black inverted ‘T’ above each wing root and a black stripe down the rudder hinge, a Union flag high on the fin with ‘G-AGPW’ below it, the registration under the port wing and black propellers. Its shape was taken from published three-views scaled to the published span and length and checked against some 25 photographs, which also placed the windows and markings. The nose probe it carried in later test flying is left off, the windows on the starboard side are assumed to match the port side, and the size of the elevator and rudder mass-balance fairings is estimated.

Where to see one

Not on charge

The only Brabazon to fly, G-AGPW, was scrapped in 1953 with the unfinished Mk II.

All 295 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.