AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 138 / 201

Plate 138 of 201 · Early jet age · Long-range turboprop airliner

Bristol Britannia

Britannia 312, painted as G-AOVT, a Bristol Britannia Series 312 (c/n 13427), one of the long-bodied Proteus-powered Britannias built for BOAC’s North Atlantic services, later flown by British Eagle and Monarch Airlines and flown into Duxford in 1975 for the Duxford Aviation Society’s British Airliner Collection: the four-turboprop airliner, 142 ft in span, shown standing level on its tricycle gear with the propellers parked, in Monarch Airlines’ colours as restored: a white cabin roof over a black window cheat line, Monarch gold below and over the belly, a black radome cap and anti-glare panel, black ‘MONARCH’ titles over the wing, a gold fin and rudder with a black band carrying the gold crown-and-M badge, white ‘G-AOVT’ at the rear, natural-metal wings, tailplane and nacelles with red-and-white check panels on the cowlings and red intake rings, and pale propellers with yellow tips, as it is displayed at IWM Duxford (most starboard cabin windows are shown blanked as preserved, and the badge letterforms are simplified).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as G-AOVT, a Bristol Britannia Series 312 (c/n 13427), one of the long-bodied Proteus-powered Britannias built for BOAC’s North Atlantic services, later flown by British Eagle and Monarch Airlines and flown into Duxford in 1975 for the Duxford Aviation Society’s British Airliner Collection: the four-turboprop airliner, 142 ft in span, shown standing level on its tricycle gear with the propellers parked, in Monarch Airlines’ colours as restored: a white cabin roof over a black window cheat line, Monarch gold below and over the belly, a black radome cap and anti-glare panel, black ‘MONARCH’ titles over the wing, a gold fin and rudder with a black band carrying the gold crown-and-M badge, white ‘G-AOVT’ at the rear, natural-metal wings, tailplane and nacelles with red-and-white check panels on the cowlings and red intake rings, and pale propellers with yellow tips, as it is displayed at IWM Duxford (most starboard cabin windows are shown blanked as preserved, and the badge letterforms are simplified). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (2.1 MB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (); engine, crew and dimensions are for the Britannia 312 modelled here.

History

The Britannia 312

The Britannia was Bristol’s answer to a 1947 BOAC requirement for a medium-range airliner for the Empire routes. It began as a piston-engined design, but Bristol switched to its own Proteus turboprop, and the airliner grew into a large, graceful four-engined aircraft with a pressurised cabin for around ninety passengers. The first prototype, G-ALBO, flew from Filton on 16 August 1952 with Bill Pegg at the controls.

Development was slow and costly. The second prototype was lost in February 1954 when an engine failed and caught fire, and Pegg put it down on the mudflats of the Severn estuary without injury to anyone aboard. Then the Proteus suffered flame-outs when ice built up in its reverse-flow intakes as the aircraft flew through tropical cloud. BOAC did not start Britannia services until February 1957, on the London to Johannesburg route. The long-bodied Series 310s followed, and on 19 December 1957 a BOAC Britannia 312 opened the first non-stop turboprop service between London and New York.

By then the Boeing 707 and de Havilland Comet 4 were close behind, and the jets soon took over the trunk routes. Only 85 Britannias were built, at Filton and by Short Brothers in Belfast. The type had a long second life with charter and freight airlines such as British Eagle, Caledonian and Monarch, and with RAF Transport Command, which flew twenty-three from Lyneham and Brize Norton until 1975. Its quiet engines earned it the name ‘Whispering Giant’, and a few were still flying freight in Africa in the 1990s.

This airframe

Britannia 312 G-AOVT

G-AOVTThe airframe modelled

G-AOVT (constructor’s number 13427) was built at Filton as one of BOAC’s long-range Series 312s for the North Atlantic. After BOAC replaced its Britannias with jets in the early 1960s it went to British Eagle, and when that airline collapsed in 1968 it passed to Monarch Airlines of Luton, which had begun flying holiday charters with Britannias that year. It made its last flight into Duxford in 1975 and has been kept there by the Duxford Aviation Society in the British Airliner Collection ever since. The model shows it in Monarch’s colours as restored: a white cabin roof over a black window cheat line, Monarch gold below and over the belly, a black radome cap and anti-glare panel, black ‘MONARCH’ titles over the wing, a gold fin and rudder with a black band carrying the gold crown-and-M badge, white ‘G-AOVT’ at the rear, and natural-metal wings, tailplane and nacelles with red-and-white check panels on the cowlings.

See it at IWM Duxford

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the Britannia 312 in 5 UK collections. The airframe modelled here is marked.

Every airframe and serial All 201 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.