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The Bristol Brabazon - Engineering masterpiece or Great White Elephant: Contents
Pick a page to read by clicking on its title in the list below:
| No. | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Design and construction phase | The Brabazon Project team, initially led by Leslie George Frise BSc FRAeS, was among the brightest and best of their time and by 1943 Bristol's war effort was seen to be endi... |
| 2 | NEW CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUES | Brabazon was a groundbreaker in technology, showing that Bristol was still in the forefront of innovation. She was to have a fully stressed skin construction and be built to ... |
| 3 | First of the Modern Airliners | Brabazon was also going to be the first modern aircraft to be designed with pressurisation in mind. This system would allow the aircraft to fly at a greater altitude. This w... |
| 4 | The Engine Configuration - 8 Centaurus Sleeve Valve engines | To achieve the necessary reduction in drag and also achieve the design criteria, i.e. non-stop across the Atlantic with 100 passengers, a serious rethink was needed. Bristol ... |
| 5 | The testing Phase | At around 150,000 lbs all up weight the Brabazon was sight to see, particularly by onlookers more used to single seat or small fighter/bombers. When the Mk1 rolled out of her... |
| 6 | Brabazon Flight test programme | Think of the biggest plane you've ever seen. OK? Probably a Boeing 747,jumbo jet. Imagine yourself over fifty years ago when the biggest aircraft you had seen was probably a... |
| 7 | Test flying the Brabazon | Since early morning on Sunday September 4th 1949 crowds had been gathering at all the vantage points around the airfield as well as the enclosures set up on the airfield for f... |
| 8 | The Flight Test crew | The ten man flight test crew were keen young men, some of whom had flown during the war and others who were factory trained or engineers from university. They were to put the... |
| 9 | The Final failure and destruction | What went wrong? Well nothing; the aircraft was built, flown and proved itself worthy. What had happened was that the world economics following a World War moved on too fast... |
