How many cars fit in a Silver City "Superfreighter"?

Short answer

Three cars of up to 14 ft (3.3 m) plus 20 passengers; with larger vehicles, only two and 12 passengers. The Superfreighter's lengthened nose, Silver City's name for the Bristol Freighter 32, allowed for that load, or 60 seats in the Super Wayfarer passenger configuration.

Published: November 5, 2026 · Updated: November 5, 2026 · Edited by Above Ten Thousand · Editorial policy

How many cars fit in a Silver City "Superfreighter"?

Bristol 170 Freighter 32 of Silver City AirwaysRuthAS (CC BY), vía commons

A stretched Bristol Freighter

Silver City Airways named Superfreighter the stretched version of the Bristol Freighter, the Freighter 32. That model featured movable wooden bulkheads in the cargo compartment. Its lengthened nose was what allowed it to carry three cars or fit 60 seats in the all-passenger configuration, named Super Wayfarer.

What fit inside

The cargo hold could take three cars of 14 ft (3.3 m) and 20 passengers, or two larger vehicles and 12 passengers.

From the first air ferry to Ferryfield

On 7 July 1948, a Silver City Bristol Freighter operated the first cross-Channel air ferry service, between Lympne, near Folkestone (Kent), and Le Touquet, on the French Côte d'Opale. At first there was a flat fare of £32 per crossing of the Channel for a group of four passengers and their car. By late 1949, the operation was running five Freighters at full capacity, which carried 2,700 cars and 10,000 passengers. In 1950, the car and passenger figures on Silver City's cross-Channel services had roughly doubled, to 5,000 and 24,000 respectively. With this variant, the company later built an airport called Ferryfield in Lydd (Kent) and began its air ferry services there in 1955.