Brabazon Committee
Encyclopedia
The Brabazon Committee was a committee formed on 23 December 1942 to investigate the future needs of the British Empire's civilian airliner market. The study was an attempt at defining in broad overview; the impact of projected advances in aviation technology and to forecast the global needs of the post war British Empire
(in South Asia, Africa, the Near and Far East) and Commonwealth (Australia, Canada New Zealand) in the area of air transport, for passengers, mail, and cargo.
The study both recognized and accepted that the British Empire and Commonwealth as both a political and economic entity would have a vital need for aviation systems (principally aircraft) to facilitate its continued existence and self reliance in the post-war world. For military and commercial reasons, the empire simply could not continue to exist if did not understand the needs, and develop the industrial infrastructure to provide, the aviation systems and sub-systems necessary to supply and maintain a global air transport service.
and the United Kingdom agreed to split responsibility for building multi-engine aircraft types: the US would concentrate on transport aircraft
while the UK would concentrate on heavy bomber
s. It was soon recognized that as a result of that decision the United Kingdom
was to be left at the close of the war with little experience in the design, manufacture and final assembly of transport aircraft, and no infrastructure or trained personnel for the doing of same. Yet, the massive infrastructure created in the US would allow them to produce civilian aircraft based upon military transport designs; and crucially these would have to be purchased by the UK, Empire and Commonwealth to meet their post-war civilian transport aviation needs.
A committee began meeting in February 1943 under the leadership of Lord Brabazon of Tara in order to investigate the future needs of the British civilian airliner
market. They studied a number of designs and technical considerations, meeting several times over the next two years to further clarify the needs of different market segments. The final report called for the construction of four general designs studied by the committee and members of the state-owned airline
s British Overseas Airways Corporation
(BOAC) and later British European Airways
(BEA).
The committee published versions of the report several times between August 1943 and November 1945, each time further solidifying the specification of one of the types.
started the process for contracts for all of these planes. This was carried out in the normal way for government aircraft production. A Ministry Specification was issued and aircraft companies provided designs or prototypes to the specification.
The Type I design developed into Air Ministry Specification 2/44, and was contested by the Bristol Brabazon
and the Miles X-15. After a short selection process the Type I was given to the Bristol Aeroplane Company
, building on submissions they had made during the war for a "100 ton bomber".
The Type II process was somewhat more complex. Several companies submitted designs to the original specification, but Vickers suggested a move to turboprop power. There was some skepticism on the part of the committee, and in the end they decided to split the specification in two, allowing the turboprop design to go ahead while at the same time ordering a "backup" piston design as well. This led to a split into the IIA and IIB types, with the de Havilland Dove
and Airspeed Ambassador
filling the IIA requirement, and the Vickers
VC.2 Viceroy
and the Armstrong Whitworth
AW.55 Apollo filling IIB (specification 8/46).
The Type IIA requirement was developed as the Airspeed Ambassador
The Type IIB requirement was developed as the Vickers Viscount
The Type IIIB requirement was developed as the Avro Tudor
.
The Type IV went to de Havilland
and would become the world's first jet airliner, the Comet
.
The Type VA requirement was developed as the Miles Marathon.
The Type VB requirement was developed as the de Havilland Dove
.
The Type I was certainly doomed from the start. The design was tailored to BOAC's perceived needs, which in retrospect seem very odd and were certainly not shared by other airlines. They believed that the passengers of the aircraft would be the particularly well-off or government employees, as they were the only ones able to afford air travel at the time. This led to a large amount of space per passenger in consideration of the long journey duration, which kept its operating costs high and made it too expensive to operate. It appears they failed to consider the side-effects of greatly increasing route capacity through the introduction of these designs, and the idea of a large number of passengers in the same airframe does not appear to have been considered. Only a single Brabazon prototype was built and flown before it was broken up along with the uncompleted second prototype.
The Type II was the only outright success of the series. The smaller design for the original short-haul need was eventually filled by the Dove with great success, leading to a production run in the hundreds. At the other end of the scale, the Viscount
is arguably one of the most successful airliners of its class, and was also produced into the hundreds. Other entrants did not fare so well, including the Ambassador and the Handley Page Marathon
, which were forced to compete against the "risky" turboprop design that completely outperformed them. Handley Page responded in the mid-1950s with the Dart Herald
, competing with some success as a sort of larger Viscount.
By all rights the Type III should have been a success, but a series of delays before and after entering service forced it to compete with newly-introduced jet designs from the US, with which it could simply not compare. The Britannia proved to be an excellent design with a long service life, but only in niche roles.
The Type IV Comet almost became an outstanding success, but three unexplained crashes grounded them and the design changes required delayed reintroduction for long enough that the US was able to catch up with the 707.
By the 1960s it was clear that the UK had lost the airliner market to the US, and later designs like the BAC 1-11, Vickers VC-10, and Hawker Siddeley Trident
although successful would be unable to win a substantial part of it back again. Another committee was formed to consider supersonic
designs, STAC, and worked with Bristol to create the Bristol 223
design for a 100-passenger transatlantic airliner. However this was going to be so expensive to produce that the effort was later merged with similar efforts in France
to create the Concorde
.
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
(in South Asia, Africa, the Near and Far East) and Commonwealth (Australia, Canada New Zealand) in the area of air transport, for passengers, mail, and cargo.
The study both recognized and accepted that the British Empire and Commonwealth as both a political and economic entity would have a vital need for aviation systems (principally aircraft) to facilitate its continued existence and self reliance in the post-war world. For military and commercial reasons, the empire simply could not continue to exist if did not understand the needs, and develop the industrial infrastructure to provide, the aviation systems and sub-systems necessary to supply and maintain a global air transport service.
Background
In 1942 during World War II, the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and the United Kingdom agreed to split responsibility for building multi-engine aircraft types: the US would concentrate on transport aircraft
Transport aircraft
Transport aircraft is a broad category of aircraft that includes:* Airliners* Cargo aircraft* Mail planes* Military transport aircraft...
while the UK would concentrate on heavy bomber
Heavy bomber
A heavy bomber is a bomber aircraft of the largest size and load carrying capacity, and usually the longest range.In New START, the term "heavy bomber" is used for two types of bombers:*one with a range greater than 8,000 kilometers...
s. It was soon recognized that as a result of that decision the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
was to be left at the close of the war with little experience in the design, manufacture and final assembly of transport aircraft, and no infrastructure or trained personnel for the doing of same. Yet, the massive infrastructure created in the US would allow them to produce civilian aircraft based upon military transport designs; and crucially these would have to be purchased by the UK, Empire and Commonwealth to meet their post-war civilian transport aviation needs.
A committee began meeting in February 1943 under the leadership of Lord Brabazon of Tara in order to investigate the future needs of the British civilian airliner
Airliner
An airliner is a large fixed-wing aircraft for transporting passengers and cargo. Such aircraft are operated by airlines. Although the definition of an airliner can vary from country to country, an airliner is typically defined as an aircraft intended for carrying multiple passengers in commercial...
market. They studied a number of designs and technical considerations, meeting several times over the next two years to further clarify the needs of different market segments. The final report called for the construction of four general designs studied by the committee and members of the state-owned airline
Airline
An airline provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines lease or own their aircraft with which to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for mutual benefit...
s British Overseas Airways Corporation
British Overseas Airways Corporation
The British Overseas Airways Corporation was the British state airline from 1939 until 1946 and the long-haul British state airline from 1946 to 1974. The company started life with a merger between Imperial Airways Ltd. and British Airways Ltd...
(BOAC) and later British European Airways
British European Airways
British European Airways or British European Airways Corporation was a British airline which existed from 1946 until 1974. The airline operated European and North African routes from airports around the United Kingdom...
(BEA).
Report
The report identified four, later five, types of aircraft that would be required after the war.- Type I was a very large transatlanticTransatlantic flightTransatlantic flight is the flight of an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean. A transatlantic flight may proceed east-to-west, originating in Europe or Africa and terminating in North America or South America, or it may go in the reverse direction, west-to-east...
airliner serving the high-volume routes like LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
-New YorkNew YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, seating its passengers in luxury for the 12-hour trip.
- Type II was a short haul feederliner intended to replace the Douglas DC-3Douglas DC-3The Douglas DC-3 is an American fixed-wing propeller-driven aircraft whose speed and range revolutionized air transport in the 1930s and 1940s. Its lasting impact on the airline industry and World War II makes it one of the most significant transport aircraft ever made...
and de Havilland Dragon RapideDe Havilland Dragon RapideThe de Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide was a British short-haul passenger airliner of the 1930s.-Design and development:Designed by the de Havilland company in late 1933 as a faster and more comfortable successor to the DH.84 Dragon, it was in effect a twin-engined, scaled-down version of the...
, although BEA suggested a larger and much more capable design. Type II was later split into two designs, IIA was a piston-powered aircraft, and the IIB was turbopropTurbopropA turboprop engine is a type of turbine engine which drives an aircraft propeller using a reduction gear.The gas turbine is designed specifically for this application, with almost all of its output being used to drive the propeller...
powered.
- Type III called for a larger medium-range aircraft for various multi-hop routes serving the British EmpireBritish EmpireThe British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
.
- Type IV was the most advanced of them all, a jet-poweredJet engineA jet engine is a reaction engine that discharges a fast moving jet to generate thrust by jet propulsion and in accordance with Newton's laws of motion. This broad definition of jet engines includes turbojets, turbofans, rockets, ramjets, pulse jets...
100-seat design. It was added at the personal urging of one of the committee members, Geoffrey de HavillandGeoffrey de HavillandCaptain Sir Geoffrey de Havilland, OM, CBE, AFC, RDI, FRAeS, was a British aviation pioneer and aircraft engineer...
whose company was involved in development of Britain's first jet fighters. The Type IV could, if the whole concept of a jet airliner could be made to work, be able to replace the Type III outright, and many of the duties of the other planes in shorter routes.
- Type V was later introduced to fill the original feederliner specifications after the Type II had evolved into larger designs.
The committee published versions of the report several times between August 1943 and November 1945, each time further solidifying the specification of one of the types.
The aircraft
In 1944, the Ministry of SupplyMinistry of Supply
The Ministry of Supply was a department of the UK Government formed in 1939 to co-ordinate the supply of equipment to all three British armed forces, headed by the Minister of Supply. There was, however, a separate ministry responsible for aircraft production and the Admiralty retained...
started the process for contracts for all of these planes. This was carried out in the normal way for government aircraft production. A Ministry Specification was issued and aircraft companies provided designs or prototypes to the specification.
The Type I design developed into Air Ministry Specification 2/44, and was contested by the Bristol Brabazon
Bristol Brabazon
The Bristol Type 167 Brabazon was a large propeller-driven airliner, designed by the Bristol Aeroplane Company to fly transatlantic routes from the United Kingdom to the United States. The prototype was delivered in 1949, only to prove a commercial failure when airlines felt the airliner was too...
and the Miles X-15. After a short selection process the Type I was given to the Bristol Aeroplane Company
Bristol Aeroplane Company
The Bristol Aeroplane Company, originally the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company, was both one of the first and one of the most important British aviation companies, designing and manufacturing both airframes and aero engines...
, building on submissions they had made during the war for a "100 ton bomber".
The Type II process was somewhat more complex. Several companies submitted designs to the original specification, but Vickers suggested a move to turboprop power. There was some skepticism on the part of the committee, and in the end they decided to split the specification in two, allowing the turboprop design to go ahead while at the same time ordering a "backup" piston design as well. This led to a split into the IIA and IIB types, with the de Havilland Dove
De Havilland Dove
The de Havilland DH.104 Dove was a British monoplane short-haul airliner from de Havilland, the successor to the biplane de Havilland Dragon Rapide and was one of Britain's most successful post-war civil designs...
and Airspeed Ambassador
Airspeed Ambassador
The Airspeed AS.57 Ambassador was a British twin piston engined airliner that first flew on 10 July 1947 and served in small numbers through the 1950s and 1960s.-Design and development:...
filling the IIA requirement, and the Vickers
Vickers
Vickers was a famous name in British engineering that existed through many companies from 1828 until 1999.-Early history:Vickers was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by the miller Edward Vickers and his father-in-law George Naylor in 1828. Naylor was a partner in the foundry Naylor &...
VC.2 Viceroy
Vickers Viscount
The Vickers Viscount was a British medium-range turboprop airliner first flown in 1948 by Vickers-Armstrongs, making it the first such aircraft to enter service in the world...
and the Armstrong Whitworth
Armstrong Whitworth
Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Co Ltd was a major British manufacturing company of the early years of the 20th century. Headquartered in Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne, Armstrong Whitworth engaged in the construction of armaments, ships, locomotives, automobiles, and aircraft.-History:In 1847,...
AW.55 Apollo filling IIB (specification 8/46).
The Type IIA requirement was developed as the Airspeed Ambassador
Airspeed Ambassador
The Airspeed AS.57 Ambassador was a British twin piston engined airliner that first flew on 10 July 1947 and served in small numbers through the 1950s and 1960s.-Design and development:...
The Type IIB requirement was developed as the Vickers Viscount
Vickers Viscount
The Vickers Viscount was a British medium-range turboprop airliner first flown in 1948 by Vickers-Armstrongs, making it the first such aircraft to enter service in the world...
The Type IIIB requirement was developed as the Avro Tudor
Avro Tudor
Avro's Type 688 Tudor was a British piston-engined airliner based on their four-engine Lincoln bomber, itself a descendant of the famous Lancaster heavy bomber, and was Britain's first pressurised airliner...
.
The Type IV went to de Havilland
De Havilland
The de Havilland Aircraft Company was a British aviation manufacturer founded in 1920 when Airco, of which Geoffrey de Havilland had been chief designer, was sold to BSA by the owner George Holt Thomas. De Havilland then set up a company under his name in September of that year at Stag Lane...
and would become the world's first jet airliner, the Comet
De Havilland Comet
The de Havilland DH 106 Comet was the world's first commercial jet airliner to reach production. Developed and manufactured by de Havilland at the Hatfield, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom headquarters, it first flew in 1949 and was a landmark in aeronautical design...
.
The Type VA requirement was developed as the Miles Marathon.
The Type VB requirement was developed as the de Havilland Dove
De Havilland Dove
The de Havilland DH.104 Dove was a British monoplane short-haul airliner from de Havilland, the successor to the biplane de Havilland Dragon Rapide and was one of Britain's most successful post-war civil designs...
.
Success and failure
Of the six Brabazon designs that were produced, only two could be considered outright successes. Two others were victims of circumstance and arguably should have been more successful. The remaining two were simply doomed to failure.The Type I was certainly doomed from the start. The design was tailored to BOAC's perceived needs, which in retrospect seem very odd and were certainly not shared by other airlines. They believed that the passengers of the aircraft would be the particularly well-off or government employees, as they were the only ones able to afford air travel at the time. This led to a large amount of space per passenger in consideration of the long journey duration, which kept its operating costs high and made it too expensive to operate. It appears they failed to consider the side-effects of greatly increasing route capacity through the introduction of these designs, and the idea of a large number of passengers in the same airframe does not appear to have been considered. Only a single Brabazon prototype was built and flown before it was broken up along with the uncompleted second prototype.
The Type II was the only outright success of the series. The smaller design for the original short-haul need was eventually filled by the Dove with great success, leading to a production run in the hundreds. At the other end of the scale, the Viscount
Vickers Viscount
The Vickers Viscount was a British medium-range turboprop airliner first flown in 1948 by Vickers-Armstrongs, making it the first such aircraft to enter service in the world...
is arguably one of the most successful airliners of its class, and was also produced into the hundreds. Other entrants did not fare so well, including the Ambassador and the Handley Page Marathon
Handley Page Marathon
-See also:-References:NotesBibliographys* Amos, Peter. and Don Lambert Brown. Miles Aircraft Since 1925, Volume 1. London: Putnam Aeronautical, 2000. ISBN 0-85177-787-0....
, which were forced to compete against the "risky" turboprop design that completely outperformed them. Handley Page responded in the mid-1950s with the Dart Herald
Handley Page Dart Herald
The Handley Page Dart Herald was a 1950s British turboprop passenger aircraft.-Design and development:In the mid 1950s the Handley Page Aircraft Company developed a new fast short-range regional airliner, intended to replace the venerable Douglas DC-3, particularly in third-world countries...
, competing with some success as a sort of larger Viscount.
By all rights the Type III should have been a success, but a series of delays before and after entering service forced it to compete with newly-introduced jet designs from the US, with which it could simply not compare. The Britannia proved to be an excellent design with a long service life, but only in niche roles.
The Type IV Comet almost became an outstanding success, but three unexplained crashes grounded them and the design changes required delayed reintroduction for long enough that the US was able to catch up with the 707.
By the 1960s it was clear that the UK had lost the airliner market to the US, and later designs like the BAC 1-11, Vickers VC-10, and Hawker Siddeley Trident
Hawker Siddeley Trident
The Hawker Siddeley HS 121 Trident was a British short/medium-range three-engined jet airliner designed by de Havilland and built by Hawker Siddeley in the 1960s and 1970s...
although successful would be unable to win a substantial part of it back again. Another committee was formed to consider supersonic
Supersonic
Supersonic speed is a rate of travel of an object that exceeds the speed of sound . For objects traveling in dry air of a temperature of 20 °C this speed is approximately 343 m/s, 1,125 ft/s, 768 mph or 1,235 km/h. Speeds greater than five times the speed of sound are often...
designs, STAC, and worked with Bristol to create the Bristol 223
Bristol 223
The Bristol Aeroplane Company Type 223 was an early design for a supersonic transport. In the late 1950s and early 1960s the company studied a number of models as part of a large British inter-company effort funded by the government. These models eventually culminated in the Type 223, a...
design for a 100-passenger transatlantic airliner. However this was going to be so expensive to produce that the effort was later merged with similar efforts in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
to create the Concorde
Concorde
Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde was a turbojet-powered supersonic passenger airliner, a supersonic transport . It was a product of an Anglo-French government treaty, combining the manufacturing efforts of Aérospatiale and the British Aircraft Corporation...
.