Bristol Britannia - Operational History

Operational History

Following an extended period of uneventful development flying trials and the fitting of a modified Proteus 765 series that greatly alleviated the number of breakdowns, a full Certificate of Airworthiness was awarded at the end of 1955. Consequently, the first two Model 102s were delivered to BOAC on 30 December 1955 for crew training. The Model 102 began scheduled service on 1 February 1957 with a BOAC flight between London and Johannesburg. By August 1957, the first 15 Model 102 aircraft had been delivered to BOAC. The last 10 aircraft of the order were built as Series 300 aircraft for transatlantic operations. In April 1959, a Model 102 Britannia was leased by BOAC to Ghana Airways for services between Accra and London, several more Britannias were purchased by the airline in the early 1960s. The Model 102 was eventually made available to other BOAC associates, including Cathay Pacific, Central Africa, East African, Nigeria and Malayan airlines.

The next production series was based on the long-range, mixed passenger/freight Model 200 series that was intended for civil airline use but ultimately Bristol offered the series to the Royal Air Force (RAF) instead. The production series of three Model 252 and 20 Model 253 aircraft were purchased by RAF Transport Command in 1959, assigned the designation Britannia C.2 (first Model 252 series) and C.1 (Model 253 series). Those in RAF service were allocated the names of stars, such as "Arcturus", "Sirius" and "Vega". On retirement from the RAF in 1975, many Model 200 series were subsequently used by independent civil operators for cargo operations, harkening back to their original intended role.

Although the Bristol Model 302 was built first as part of the original BOAC order, BOAC released this series to other airlines; Aeronaves de Mexico took two Model 302s which entered service in December 1957. The 18 Bristol Britannia 312s for BOAC were delivered from September 1957 with its service introduction on the first ever non-stop flight from London to Canada on 19 December 1957. In late December 1957 BOAC began regular Britannia flights London to New York. Other airlines, such as Israel's El Al, used the Britannia on transatlantic routes. In 1959 BOAC started flying the Britannia across the Pacific to Tokyo, extending their network round the world.

On 1 April 1958 Canadian Pacific Air Lines took delivery of the first of six Model 314 Britannias, with an additional two Model 324s (built to a 320 standard) arriving later and sold to Cathay Pacific in 1961. BOAC ordered seven Model 302s but never took delivery, instead they were taken on by airlines including Aeronaves de México and Ghana Airways. The main long-range series were the 310s, of which BOAC took 18 and, after deliveries began in September 1957, put them into service between London and New York; in March 1964 BOAC owned 50 aircraft, 10 being Britannia 312s. BOAC's last scheduled Britannia flight was April 1965.

The 310 series (the Model 318) also saw transatlantic service with Cubana de Aviación starting in 1958, in spite of the Cuban Revolution the airline had a special accord with British aircraft manufacturers to maintain this model of aircraft. In 1975 Cuban Britannias were used to transport hundreds of soldiers of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces to Angola in Operation Carlota, a proxy war. Cubana de Aviación continued using various Britannias until March 1990.

Most aircraft were built by Bristol at Filton but 30 were built at Belfast by Short Brothers and Harland. Due to the extended development instead of a projected production of 180 Britannias, only 80 were sold. The negative experience with the development of the Britannia caused BOAC to be more cautious towards other British-made aircraft such as the Vickers VC-10. Throughout the Britannia's lifespan, the engine icing condition remained a "continual potential hazard" that flight crews ultimately learned to manage with a "high-lo" flight regime that minimized the danger, although the problems of the Britannia can mainly be linked to that of a manufacturer undertaking an innovative airframe design matched to an unproven engine, a design syndrome that remained particularly daunting. Squadron Leader David Berry who had 5,000 hours on the type characterised his experiences as flying "Beauty and the Beast." A more fitting epitaph was recently proffered by the editors of Aeroplane as the "100 Great British Aircraft" (2008) were analysed with the Bristol Britannia counted among the "greats".