Aerospace Bristol, Filton
On the Filton site where Bristol built aircraft from 1910. Holds Concorde Alpha Foxtrot, the last Concorde to fly, and a range of Bristol-built types.
The types
Bristol aircraft you can see
| Type | First flew | Built | UK museums |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bristol Boxkiteflying reproduction | 1910 | ~76 | 2 |
| Bristol ScoutC/D | 1914 | 374 | 3 |
| Bristol M.1C | 1916 | ~130 | 2 |
| Bristol F.2b Fighter | 1916 | 5,329 | 4 |
| Bristol Bulldog | 1927 | ~440 | 1 |
| Bristol BlenheimI/IV & Bolingbroke | 1935 | ~4,400 | 7 |
| Bristol Beaufort | 1938 | 1,180 | 2 |
| Bristol BeaufighterIF/TF.X | 1939 | 5,928 | 6 |
| Bristol Sycamore | 1947 | 180 | 12 |
| Bristol Britannia | 1952 | 85 | 5 |
| Westland Belvedere | 1961 | 26 | 3 |
The firm
Bristol in brief
Frank Barnwell became chief designer after Henri Coandă left in 1914. His Bristol Fighter, the F.2B, served through the First World War and long after. The Bulldog, Blenheim and Beaufighter followed. Roy Fedden’s engine department made Bristol a major engine maker as well. After the war came the Britannia airliner and the Sycamore helicopter.
In 1959–60 government policy forced the aircraft business into the British Aircraft Corporation. The engine company merged with Armstrong Siddeley in 1958 to form Bristol Siddeley, which Rolls-Royce bought in 1966. Filton carried on building aircraft, including the British Concordes.
Where to go
Museums holding Bristol aircraft
| Museum | Bristol types | Adult entry | Airframes | Headline exhibit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aerospace BristolBristol, Gloucestershire | 8 | £20 | 14 | Concorde G-BOAF, the last Concorde ever built and the last ever to fly (26 November 2003, into Filton, forever). You can board her.… |
| Royal Air Force Museum LondonLondon, Greater London | 6 | Free | 88 | Avro Lancaster R5868 'S-Sugar' — 137 operations, the RAF's highest-scoring surviving heavy — under the same roof as a Vulcan, a… |
| IWM DuxfordCambridge, Cambridgeshire | 4 | £29 | 146 | Concorde 101 (G-AXDN), the pre-production development aircraft and the fastest Concorde of them all at Mach 2.23 — plus an SR-71A… |
| The Shuttleworth CollectionBiggleswade, Bedfordshire | 4 | £19.50 | 55 | The 1934 DH.88 Comet 'Grosvenor House', winner of the MacRobertson England–Australia air race, restored to fly; and the Edwardians —… |
| Royal Air Force Museum MidlandsShifnal, Shropshire | 3 | Free | 78 | TSR-2 XR220, one of two survivors of the most gifted aircraft Britain ever cancelled, sharing floor space with the stainless-steel… |
| National Museum Of FlightNorth Berwick, East Lothian | 2 | £15 | 47 | Concorde G-BOAA, which flew British Airways' first commercial supersonic service in 1976 and arrived here by barge and giant road-crawl… |
| South Yorkshire Aircraft MuseumDoncaster, South Yorkshire | 2 | £7.50 | 109 | Doncaster's South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum sprawls across the old RAF Doncaster site: dozens of airframes and helicopters, strong… |
| The Helicopter MuseumWeston-super-Mare, Somerset | 2 | £15 | 108 | G-LYNX, the modified Westland Lynx that took the absolute helicopter world speed record (249.09 mph) in 1986 and holds it still; parked… |
| Wings Aviation MuseumHaywards Heath, West Sussex | 2 | £13 | 25 | The Wings Museum near Balcombe displays Eastern Front and D-Day aircraft archaeology in crash-site dioramas — raw, unpolished and… |
| Airworld Aviation MuseumCaernarfon, Gwynedd | 1 | £7 | 10 | Airworld at Caernarfon Airport (RAF Llandwrog, birthplace of the RAF Mountain Rescue Service): Hunter, Vampire and the world's only… |
| Army Flying MuseumStockbridge, Hampshire | 1 | £18 | 43 | Middle Wallop's Army Flying Museum covers everything the Army has flown from observation balloons to Apaches, with superb dioramas and a… |
| Boscombe Down Aviation CollectionSalisbury, Wiltshire | 1 | £13.50 | 49 | The Lancaster cockpit reproduction tour, and a test-and-evaluation pedigree collection you can physically inhabit rather than admire… |
| British Phantom Group & Bristol Britannia XM496 (Kemble)Cirencester, Gloucestershire | 1 | Seasonal | 5 | A working restoration compound at Cotswold Airport (Kemble): the only place on Earth with F-4J, K and M Phantoms together, plus Britannia… |
| Fleet Air Arm MuseumYeovil, Somerset | 1 | £21 | 97 | Concorde 002 (G-BSST), the first British-assembled Concorde, which made her maiden flight from Filton in 1969 and now headlines a hall of… |
| Kent Battle of Britain Museum TrustFolkestone, Kent | 1 | £12 | 8 | Hawkinge is hallowed turf: the closest fighter station to France in 1940, now the Kent Battle of Britain Museum with the world's largest… |
| Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage CentreSpilsby, Lincolnshire | 1 | £13.50 | 11 | Lancaster NX611 (taxiing now, returning to flight one day, they swear) and Mosquito NF.II HJ711 — the only running Mosquito in Europe.… |
| Midland Air MuseumCoventry, Warwickshire | 1 | £11 | 66 | Vulcan XL360 with cockpit access and volunteer-led tours (ask for the instrumentation talk), plus the Whittle jet heritage collection a… |
| MorayviaForres, Moray | 1 | £8 | 35 | Nimrod XV244 (complete, and the crew who operated her sometimes give the tours) alongside a Sea King in RAF SAR yellow — the machine that… |
| Newark Air MuseumNewark, Nottinghamshire | 1 | £12.50 | 95 | Vulcan XM594, with cockpit tours occasionally given by former Vulcan aircrew, which reviewers describe with the reverence normally… |
| Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation MuseumBungay, Suffolk | 1 | £10 | 65 | Depends who you ask — the joy is the oddities. Come for the Bloodhound missiles and decoy rarities; stay for volunteer flight-simulator… |
| North East Land, Sea and Air MuseumsSunderland, Tyne and Wear | 1 | £7.50 | 46 | NELSAM in Sunderland mixes Vulcan XL319 (flew in when the airport still existed), a Pucará from the Falklands, trams, buses and a… |
| Speke Aerodrome Heritage GroupLiverpool, Merseyside | 1 | Free | 7 | Speke Airport Museum — Speke Aerodrome Heritage Group keeps airliners, including a Dan-Air 748 under restoration, on Liverpool's gorgeous… |
| Ulster Aviation Society (Maze Long Kesh)Lisburn, County Antrim | 1 | By appointment | 63 | The Shorts family — SC.1 vertical take-off research aircraft included — plus a Buccaneer, Phantom, Wildcat, and a newly arrived AV-8… |
Questions
Frequently asked
Where was the Bristol Aeroplane Company based?
At Filton, on the northern edge of Bristol, from 1910. It also had a second factory at Brislington and an early flying school at Larkhill.
What happened to the Bristol Aeroplane Company?
Its aircraft business joined the British Aircraft Corporation in 1959–60. Its engines became part of Bristol Siddeley in 1958 and passed to Rolls-Royce in 1966.
What was the Bristol Fighter?
The F.2B, a two-seat fighter designed by Frank Barnwell and first used in 1917. Several survive in UK collections; the list on this page shows where.