| Brabazon | |
|---|---|
 Brabazon in 1950 | |
| General information | |
| Type | Airliner |
| National origin | United Kingdom |
| Manufacturer | Bristol Aeroplane Company |
| Status | Scrapped |
| Number built | 1 |
| History | |
| First flight | 4 September 1949 |
| Retired | 1953 |
The Bristol Type 167 Brabazon was a large British piston-engined propeller-driven airliner designed by the Bristol Aeroplane Company to fly transatlantic routes between the UK and the United States. The type was named Brabazon after the Brabazon Committee and its chairman, Lord Brabazon of Tara, which had developed the specification to which the airliner was designed.[1]
While Bristol had studied the prospects of developing very large aircraft as bombers prior to and during the Second World War, it was the release of a report compiled by the Brabazon Committee which led the company to adapt its proposed bomber into a large civil airliner to meet the Type I specification for the long-distance transatlantic route. Initially designated the Type 167, the proposed aircraft had a 25-foot (7.6 m)-diameter fuselage, containing full upper and lower decks on which passengers would be seated in luxurious conditions. It was powered by an arrangement of eight Bristol Centaurus radial engines which drove eight paired contra-rotating propellers set on four forward-facing nacelles.
Bristol decided to submit the Type 167 proposal to meet Air Ministry Specification 2/44. Following a brief evaluation period, a contract to build a pair of prototypes was awarded. At the time of its construction, the Brabazon was one of the largest aeroplanes ever built, being sized roughly between the much later Airbus A300 and Boeing 767 airliners. Despite its vast size, the Brabazon was designed to carry only 100 passengers, each one allowed an area about the size of the interior of a small car. On 4 September 1949 the first prototype made its maiden flight. In addition to participating in a flight test programme in support of the intended production aircraft, the prototype made high-profile public appearances at the 1950 Farnborough Airshow, Heathrow Airport, and the 1951 Paris Air Show.
However, due to the high cost per seat mile compared to the alternatives, the Brabazon did not attract any firm orders, so the aircraft was a commercial failure. On 17 July 1953 Duncan Sandys, the Minister of Supply, announced that the Brabazon had been cancelled due to a lack of military or civil orders. In the end, only the single prototype was flown, and it was broken up in 1953 for scrap, along with the incomplete, turboprop-powered Brabazon I Mk.II.