Bristol Britannia: How BOAC Sabotaged Its Own Airliner and Bought American Instead

Video from the channel Vector 1945 about Bristol Britannia, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 22:11. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

Documentary about the Bristol Britannia arguing that the programme's delays and the public attitude of BOAC, its launch customer, ruined the commercial prospects of the best British turboprop. It combines the development history with a technical description and the aircraft's second life.

The Britannia answers the Brabazon Committee's Type III and the medium-range Empire airliner BOAC defined in 1946, with an April 1947 specification for 48 passengers. Approved as the Model 175 in July 1948, in November that year it was enlarged to 74 seats and long-range routes, which tied it to the Proteus turboprop. The first prototype, G-ALBO, flew on 16 August 1952 with Bill Pegg and at Farnborough earned the nickname "Whispering Giant". Fatigue testing required after the Comet accidents, icing-related shutdowns and the forced landing of the second prototype, G-ALRX, on 4 February 1954 in the Severn estuary delayed its entry into service by about 19 months, which finally came on 1 February 1957. Criticism from Basil Smallpeice and Gerard d'Erlanger damaged the confidence of other customers such as Qantas, and the Boeing 707 entered service with Pan Am on 26 October 1958.

For the Britannia 102, the video gives a length of 124 ft 3 in, a wingspan of 142 ft 3 in, Proteus 705 engines of about 3,780 ehp, a cruise speed of about 357 mph at 25,000 ft and a range of about 4,200 miles, versus about 5,100 for the 312. BOAC received 15 units of the 102 series and 18 of the 312. An El Al Britannia flew Adolf Eichmann to Israel in 1960, Cubana's aircraft made 101 flights to Angola during Operation Carlota, and the derivative CP-107 Argus served until 1981. There were 14 losses with 365 fatalities, and the worst accident, in Nicosia on 20 April 1967, killed 126 people. 85 units were built; seven survive, and the last to fly was XM496 "Regulus", in October 1997.