How Did A Failed Aircraft Revolutionise Supersonic Flight?

In the rapidly moving world of aviation, success and failure are relative to the stated aims of the aircraft, and even some of the most remarkable aeronautic achievements can be shuttered in aircraft hangars if the circumstances are not right.

At the same time, some aircraft that are less than successful on a basic level can be successful relative to their aims. The Starr Bumble Bee, for example, was extremely unwieldy and difficult to fly, but the fact that such a tiny plane was able to fly at all made it record-breaking.

The opposite of this perhaps is the Bristol Type 188, a supersonic test plane that failed at every part of its research goals and yet perhaps led to the development of one of the most remarkable jetliners ever made.

The Flaming Pencil

Following Chuck Yeager’s revolutionary X-1 flight in 1947, the future of aviation was supersonic.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the UK was at the centre of jet engine and high-speed aircraft 

development, and whilst it would lose that position in part due to the difficulties of the Comet jetliner, the ambitions of the UK Air Ministry bordered on revolutionary.

In 1953, they called for a Mach 2-capable research plane that could achieve these speeds whilst operating at temperatures over 300 degrees Celsius for a long time. All of this was meant to test the feasibility of a long-distance supersonic jet plane.

Bristol Aircraft were the company that the Air Ministry were most keen on and would ultimately get the tender that year.

It would use puddle-welded stainless steel, the first for a jet aircraft, an extremely narrow fuselage and several innovations such as a fused-quartz canopy and cockpit cooling system. However, it would never manage the consistent speeds it was expected to.

The jet engines that were chosen, a pair of Gyron Junior engines from De Havilland, meant that the engine only had enough fuel for 25 minutes of flight and required a minimum takeoff speed of 300mph.

The fuel woes were not helped by constant leaks and aerodynamic issues caused by its narrow shape, giving the Bristol 188 the nickname of the “Flaming Pencil”. 

By 1962, after becoming the most expensive aircraft research project in the UK up until that point, the project was terminated, having never really tested any of its goals. 

The Shadow Of Concorde

However, whilst the Bristol 188 itself is typically regarded as an expensive failure, it actually led to some remarkable developments in supersonic flight.

Bristol was developing a delta wing supersonic aircraft named the Type 223, based in part on some of the research and lack of research from the Type 188. 

This concept, whilst it had potential, was seen as too expensive to be undertaken alone, so Bristol, now part of the merged British Aircraft Corporation, would work with Sud Aviation (later part of Airbus) in France on a cross-country supersonic partnership.

The result of this was Concorde, one of the most radical jetliners ever made and by far the most successful supersonic passenger jetliner of all time. If it were not for the attempts and failures of Bristol’s Type 188, Concorde may never have taken shape.